Concordia Cemetery, the sprawling 52-acre burial ground off Interstate 10 near the Spaghetti Bowl, is throwing open its gates this Saturday, October 10, for its annual Dia de los Muertos celebration, running from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. with a Catrina/Catrin costume contest, a high school mariachi competition, live entertainment, vendors, and food on site.
The cemetery sits at 3700 E. Yandell Drive, according to elpasotimes.com, and it is described by the Concordia Cemetery nonprofit as the resting place of more than 60,000 members of the El Paso community, though a 2019 report from theprospectordaily.com put the figure at more than 65,000 graves. Either way, it is a staggering number of stories packed into one historic plot of West Texas ground, and this weekend offers a rare chance to walk among them with music, color, and remembrance rather than silence.
Admission for Saturday's event, as reported by 93.1 Kiss FM in the original kisselpaso.com article, runs $8 for adults and $4 for students, with children aged 6 and under getting in free. High schools can sign up to compete in the mariachi competition, and the Catrina/Catrin contest invites attendees to show off their best painted-skull looks among the headstones.
A Cemetery Built From El Paso's Many Communities
Concordia is not just one cemetery but a patchwork of them. The grounds set aside distinct sections for Jesuits, Catholics, Mexican Catholics, Protestants, Methodists, Jews, Mormons, Masons, Odd Fellows, African Americans, and Chinese residents, according to Texas Highways. That same outlet notes the Texas Historical Commission designated Concordia a Historic Texas Cemetery back in 2005.
The names buried there read like a roster of the Old West. Concordia Cemetery lists gunfighter John Wesley Hardin, Buffalo Soldiers, Texas Rangers, Civil War veterans, and early Mormon pioneers among its residents. The cemetery is full today, with only people holding reserved plots and deeds eligible for burial there now, per the elpasotimes.com account.
Honoring El Paso's First Fallen Officer
This year's gathering also carries a fresh tribute. Thomas P. Moad, who served with the Texas Rangers and is remembered as the first El Paso police officer killed in the line of duty, received a dedicated monument at Concordia Cemetery in 2026, according to the original kisselpaso.com report. Moad was bestowed an official Texas Ranger Cross, and his story was shared with the public by Harry Kirk, the same report states.
For years, Moad's name appeared on a misspelled plaque, the kisselpaso.com article notes, and his death occurred 140 years before the monument's dedication. It is the kind of correction that fits squarely into Concordia's ongoing mission: making sure the people buried there are not forgotten, misnamed, or lost to time.
Fundraising Keeps the Historic Grounds Standing
The nonprofit Concordia Heritage Association helps maintain the cemetery and raises money for improvements, per Texas Highways, and the group organizes events throughout the year, often using actors and storytellers to present the cemetery's history to visitors. Saturday's celebration follows a familiar pattern for the association, which hosted a similar Dia de los Muertos fundraiser in 2025 with proceeds going toward the upkeep of the historic cemetery, as reported by KFOX14.
The 2024 edition of the event, also covered by KFOX14, ran from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. and featured altar displays, vendors, food trucks, pan de muerto, and live performances from Mariachi Reyes Coronado and the Aztec Folklorico Ballet, with children under six admitted free. Back in 2019, theprospectordaily.com reported that visitors could walk freely around the cemetery, take in live performances, browse vendors, and get their faces painted for a $5 donation at the gate.
A Cemetery With a Reputation for the Unexplained
Beyond the cultural programming, Concordia carries a longstanding reputation among ghost hunters. The cemetery has been featured in ghost-hunting television shows, and paranormal investigators have searched its grounds for signs of the afterlife, with Concordia associated by some with legends like the Lady in White and a so-called portal to hell, according to the original kisselpaso.com report. The Concordia Heritage Association's own events page describes locations throughout the cemetery not ordinarily visited on ghost tours that investigators have sought out.
Whatever draws visitors through the gates this Saturday, whether it is the mariachi competition, the Catrina contest, or simple curiosity about the tens of thousands of lives resting there, Concordia Cemetery remains, in the words of its own description, a historical site central to El Paso's story.
