Hollywood Forever Cemetery claims to host the largest Day of the Dead celebration in California, and we wouldn’t doubt it: Each year, the cemetery grounds are covered with altars to the dead created by community artists, dance rituals, arts and crafts projects, amazing costumes and food vendors (and crowds) aplenty.
Though it’s promising an intimate, community-centered format this year, the display is sure to be spectacular, as always. A few programming notes: It looks like this year the musical performances are being replaced with two showings of Disney’s Coco. The 2025 edition will again be split into sessions: three, to be precise (1–3:30pm, 4:30–9pm and 9:30pm–1:30am), and you’ll have to exit once your time slot is up. Ticket prices differ depending on what time you’re attending. The later two sessions include a Coco screening, and the 4:30pm slot in particular will feature a drone show after the film. We suggest trying to go then: Besides the drones, the glowing, flickering altars look absolutely incredible after dark—though that’s also when the crowds tend to be the thickest.