Day of the Dead: MIKIZTLI festival at Arizona Center

If you're looking for a way to mark Día de los Muertos this weekend, the biggest gathering in the Valley is happening right downtown. The 15th Annual MIKIZTLI: Día de los Muertos PHX Festival runs this Saturday, October 24, from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Arizona Center, at 455 N 3rd St in Phoenix. It's free, family-friendly, and pulls in up to 10,000 people, so it's the kind of event you want to plan around rather than stumble into.

The music is the backbone of the evening. The lineup runs through the whole night, with sets from Mariachi Rubor, Coatlicue Danza Mexica, Enparoxismo Music, Quetzalli, Primavera Ballet Folklóricos, and the youth mariachi group Hermanas del Corazón, before Los Ravines close things out. If you want to catch the more traditional side of the program, the Danza Mexica ceremony is the part to arrive early for. The dancers wear full regalia — feathers, embroidery and headdresses — and play sacred instruments like the huehuetl drum, the panhuehuetl hand drum, the ayalaxtlis hand rattles and the coyollis standing rattles. It's a visually striking opening to what becomes a very lively night.

From there, the festival turns more celebratory. A community parade led by "Las Flacas" brings out animated 2.4-meter skeleton puppets that tower over the crowd, and that procession eventually turns into an outdoor dance party with live music. Between the performances, there's a large community altar where anyone can bring photos and objects to honor loved ones who have passed, which is the heart of the whole tradition. Around it, you'll find interactive art activities, face painting, artisan vendors and a line of local food trucks.

It's worth knowing a bit of the history behind the name. "Mikiztli" comes from Nahuatl and means "transition," which is symbolized by the calaca, or smiling skull; the traditional Nahuatl name for the celebration itself is Mihcailhuitl, "the feast of the spirits." The organization behind it, Cultural Coalition Inc., is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that has been putting on Día de los Muertos programming across Arizona for more than 30 years, so this isn't a one-off event — it's part of a long-running effort to keep the tradition going in the Valley.

On the practical side, parking is handled through two-hour validations at the Arizona Center garage on the southwest corner of 5th St and Fillmore, with street meters nearby. If you'd rather not drive, the Light Rail stops at 3rd St/Washington and Van Buren/Central Ave are both about a seven-minute walk from the site, and bus schedules are posted at valleymetro.org. The festival is backed by a long list of sponsors, with Sprouts and the NEA as presenting sponsors, The Walt Disney Company and SRP as partners, the Levitt Family Foundation as an advocate sponsor, and Chevrolet, APS, Semperfi, JARS and Siete Family Foods as supporters and champions, with Blic providing in-kind support. For any questions before you go, the festival's events coordinator, Ami Rogers, can be reached at festivals@culturalcoalition.com or (480) 819-3452.