Mexico City's Día de Muertos parade falls on Formula 1 weekend, and Oaxaca has city and state parades a day apart

Mexico City's Día de Muertos parade sets off at 2pm on Saturday 31 October, on the same weekend as the Formula 1 Mexico City Grand Prix. If you have no room yet, book one now. Expect slow traffic across the city from Friday to Sunday. In Oaxaca, the city and the state each stage a comparsa, a costumed parade, on consecutive evenings, and the cemetery vigils in Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán take place on the night of 31 October. We checked the programmes on 25 October. Times are local: Mexico City and Oaxaca stay on UTC−6 all year, with no daylight saving.

Mexico City

The city tourism ministry's official guide puts the Gran Desfile de Día de Muertos at 2pm on Saturday 31 October and gives the route only as Avenida Paseo de la Reforma to the Zócalo. Infobae and Vanguardia report that the parade leaves from the Glorieta de la Diana Cazadora and follows Reforma, Avenida Juárez, Eje Central and 5 de Mayo to the Zócalo. Infobae says the city government confirmed the start point, and that the parade takes four and a half hours.

The monumental ofrenda in the Zócalo stands from Thursday 29 October to Monday 2 November. This year it honours José Guadalupe Posada's Catrina, with a 32-metre papier-mâché sculpture, sawdust carpets and thousands of cempasúchil marigolds, the guide says. The guide also lists El Camino, a light installation on Reforma between the Ángel de la Independencia and the Puerta de los Leones, which runs until 8 November. The marigold festival on Reforma ends on 1 November, and La Puerta entre dos mundos, a festival in Chapultepec, runs from 29 October to 4 November.

Mixquic's celebrations run from 31 October to 2 November and end with La Alumbrada on the night of Monday 2 November, according to the guide. It asks visitors to arrive hours early because of the traffic, to ask permission before taking photographs, to keep a respectful silence during La Alumbrada and to avoid sitting or stepping on graves.

The Grand Prix runs at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez from Friday 30 October to Sunday 1 November, according to Formula 1's schedule. The parade falls on the Saturday. The Zócalo ofrenda is up all weekend.

Oaxaca

The state's programme, La Fiesta Más Viva de Todas, runs from Monday 26 October to Tuesday 3 November, according to the state tourism ministry, Sectur Oaxaca, as reported by Quadratin Oaxaca on 24 October. Governor Salomón Jara Cruz expects more than 50,000 Mexican and international visitors, Excélsior reported.

The two comparsas are separate events. The city's megacomparsa, with 12 bands, leaves the Cruz de Piedra at 5pm on Friday 30 October for the Plaza de la Danza. It is part of the city's own programme of 85 activities, reported by Quadratin Oaxaca and NVI Noticias. The state's Gran Comparsa leaves the Fuente de las Ocho Regiones at 6pm on Saturday 31 October, and La Catrina is staged in the Zócalo at 9pm that night. On Friday 30 October, the state also holds the Verbena Xandú in the Zócalo from 7:30pm, with free food from 35 stalls run by state government departments.

The city's programme lights the niches of the Panteón General from 7pm on 31 October, with free bread and chocolate from 8:30pm. A muerteada procession with chinas oaxaqueñas leaves the Paseo Juárez El Llano at 6pm on Sunday 1 November for the Plaza de la Danza. Concerts at the Panteón General start at 6pm and 7pm on Monday 2 November.

Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán celebrates from Friday 30 October to Monday 2 November. On the night of 31 October it holds the traditional vigil, with music, in three cemeteries: San Sebastián Mártir, Mictlancíhuatl and Monte Albán, NVI Noticias reported. The last is a cemetery that shares its name with the archaeological site.

The city estimated that 1.15 million residents and visitors were out on 31 October last year and is preparing a special operation for security, prevention, cleaning and tourist assistance, Quadratin Oaxaca reported. We found no new rules for visitors this year on drones, opening hours or access. In the cemeteries, ask before photographing anyone, and never sit or step on the graves.

Teachers of the Sección 22 union blocked six points in the city on Monday 19 October, El Imparcial de Oaxaca reported. Check local news before a long drive or a trip to the airport.

Fees, weather and safety

Mexico's visitor fee for foreign tourists, the derecho de no residente (DNR), is MXN 983 in 2026. The 2027 revenue package would raise it by 17.8 percent to MXN 1,158, and Senate committees approved the package on Wednesday 21 October, Expansión reported. The full Senate was due to start debating and voting on it on Tuesday 27 October, El Economista reported. The original budget proposal set the fee at MXN 1,334.80, according to El Economista on 7 October. The new fee would apply in 2027 if the Senate passes it and it is published in the Diario Oficial.

At 3am CST on Sunday 25 October, Hurricane Vance was about 475 km (295 miles) south-west of Acapulco and moving north-north-west at 5 mph, the US National Hurricane Center said in advisory number 16. No coastal watches or warnings were in effect. The NHC said swells from Vance would affect parts of the coast of southern and south-western Mexico over the next several days, a stretch that takes in Oaxaca's Pacific beaches. It also said it was too early to determine what wind and storm surge impacts, if any, Vance could bring to Mexico's coast. Its rain forecast through Thursday names Colima and western Michoacán and Jalisco, not Oaxaca, and it expects Vance to weaken and become post-tropical by Friday 30 October. If you are adding Puerto Escondido or Mazunte to your trip, swim only at sheltered coves and follow the lifeguards' flags.

When we checked on 25 October, the US Embassy had issued no alert for Mexico City or Oaxaca since 21 October. That day's Mexico City alert covered marches around the Senate, Paseo de la Reforma, Avenida Cuauhtémoc and the approaches to the Zócalo. The State Department's travel advisory for Mexico is unchanged at Level 2, last dated 29 May 2026.

A reform requiring hotels to check that adults with children are their parents or guardians has passed Congress but is not in force; it awaits publication in the Diario Oficial, NVI Noticias reported.