Columbia Road, East London
Saturday 31 October 2026 | From 12pm | Free

Columbia Road will celebrate London’s Day of the Dead on Saturday 31 October 2026, bringing music, dance, flowers, costume and procession to one of East London’s best- known streets.

“The Mexican… is familiar with death. [He] jokes about it, caresses it, sleeps with it, celebrates it. It is one of his favourite toys and his most steadfast love.”
— Octavio Paz, The Labyrinth of Solitude

Despite its name, Mexican Day of the Dead is a joyful celebration of life, death and remembrance. Traditionally, it is believed that the spirits of ancestors return to visit the living. Flowers are central to the celebration, particularly marigolds, whose colour and scent are said to help guide the dead home. They also remind us of the transience of life — making Columbia Road, famous for its flower market, a natural home for the festival.
Day of the Dead grew from the meeting of ancient Mesoamerican traditions surrounding life and death with Christianity following the Spanish conquest of Mexico. Its extraordinary visual language was later shaped by Mexican artist and printmaker José Guadalupe Posada, whose satirical skeletons reminded rich and poor alike that beneath our status and finery, we are all ultimately the same.

Remembrance of the dead is by no means unique to Mexico. Britain and Ireland have their own traditions associated with All Hallows’ Eve and Samhain, while festivals honouring ancestors are found throughout Asia and across the world. London is one of the world’s most diverse cities and London’s Day of the Dead welcomes people to bring their own cultures, traditions and interpretations of remembrance to the celebration.

Our first London’s Day of the Dead took place on Columbia Road in 2017 as a small gathering. It has since grown into a major community celebration, made possible by the extraordinary contributions of performers, local businesses, volunteers and visitors. The event remains free and open to everyone.

This year will feature the ever-popular all-female Mariachi Las Adelitas, Mexican choreographer Alondra Galván, the Day of the Dead Cycle Ride, The Colour Walk People, and our colourful street procession.

Our Holistic Beauty Parlour returns, alongside informal conversations with a funeral director and death doula about death, dying and grief. A curated market will bring together organisations and practitioners offering services and support around bereavement and end- of-life planning.

For the first time, we are also hoping to welcome a traditional horse-drawn funeral carriage to lead the procession.

In collaboration with Let’s Discuss Death, the wider programme will include events at Bethnal Green Library and Tower Hamlets Cemetery, encouraging greater death literacy and breaking the silence around dying, grief and end-of-life planning through open community conversations.