Logan Avenue turned into a sea of marigolds, face paint and lowriders on Sunday as Barrio Logan held its fourth annual Día de Muertos celebration, complete with a jeweled Catrina DJ at the mic and a costume contest crown that ended up going home with a family from Oceanside.
The celebration ran from noon to 7 p.m., according to the event listing on dosd.com, which described the day as filled with music, art, altars, workshops and food. As Times of San Diego reported, this year's gathering marked the fourth time the neighborhood has thrown open Logan Avenue for the holiday, building on a celebration that has grown into one of the barrio's signature annual traditions.
DJ Lexy Love helped co-host the festivities, performing in a golden Catrina costume studded with jewels around her eyes and monarch butterflies affixed to her headpiece, the outlet reported. The look fit squarely into a day built around transformation and tribute, with ofrendas, art installations, live music and danza woven throughout the event alongside youth workshops, local food vendors and the Muertos Market.
Lowriders and a Crowded Catrina Contest
Lowriders rolled through the celebration as part of the day's programming, joining the art installations and altars that lined the street, per the same account. Traditional Mexican masks were on display, and decorated skeletons were set up around the festival grounds, giving attendees plenty of spots to stop for photos amid the music and dancing.
Vendors added their own flourishes to the scene. A vendor known as Frida dressed as a traditional Catrina while selling merchandise at her booth, blending costume and commerce in a way that echoed the day's broader spirit of community celebration mixed with small-business hustle.
Oceanside Family Takes the Crown
The Catrina contest, one of the day's marquee draws, ended with a family from Oceanside taking the top prize. The winning family wore elaborate costumes topped with baskets styled as harvest headpieces, a detail the report highlighted as part of what set their entry apart from the rest of the field.
Rosy Molano, also from Oceanside, showed off her own take on a Catrina look during the event, contributing to a contest that drew contestants willing to travel from outside Barrio Logan to take part.
A Tradition That Keeps Growing
Last year's third annual festival, held on Oct. 26, 2025, gives some sense of how the celebration has expanded. According to daylightsandiego.org, that event featured three stages with live performances, food, free youth workshops, art installations, a lowrider showcase and streets lined with ofrendas, and hundreds of people walked along Logan Avenue to take it in. One standout that year was Yaretzi Flores, who wore a Catrina outfit her mother made, inspired by traditional Talavera pottery from Puebla, Mexico.
With a fourth straight year now in the books, Barrio Logan's Día de Muertos celebration has settled into a recognizable rhythm: altars and art along the sidewalks, lowriders cruising past, and a costume contest that keeps drawing families from well beyond the neighborhood's borders to honor the holiday together.
