Bahía de Banderas, Nayarit, October 26, 2026 — Five communities will host the municipality’s Día de Muertos festival October 29–November 2, with Sayulita pairing cultural celebrations with an international surf tournament.
For Puerto Vallarta residents deciding when to head north, the municipal festival calendar makes a useful distinction: surfing begins Thursday, October 29, while cultural celebrations run from Saturday, October 31, through Monday, November 2.
That timing helps answer the question behind a visit: which community should you choose, and when should you go?
As of October 26, the municipal site still marks the full cultural program and detailed timetables as forthcoming. Its overview confirms participating communities and broad activities but doesn’t set parade times or performance schedules for each town.
Choosing a community
Sayulita is the principal venue, but the celebration extends to Bucerías, San Francisco—better known as San Pancho—San Juan de Abajo and Valle de Banderas.
The municipality describes its planned activities as follows:
| Community | Announced activities |
|---|---|
| Sayulita | Main festival venue and international surf tournament |
| Bucerías | Cultural and traditional activities |
| San Pancho | Community celebrations and cultural activities |
| San Juan de Abajo | Altars, a parade, music, dance and traditional activities |
| Valle de Banderas | Cultural activities and Día de Muertos celebrations |
For residents of Bucerías or San Pancho, that means there is a local option without making Sayulita the destination for every festival outing. San Juan de Abajo’s announced program also gives readers a specific reason to consider an inland visit, with altars and a parade among its planned activities.
Across the festival, organizers have announced catrina and catrín contests, music, dance, food, and artistic presentations. These form the broader cultural program; the town summaries indicate where particular activities are planned.
Sayulita’s surf schedule is more specific
The official tournament rules place the competition at Playa Principal, Sayulita’s main beach, from October 29 to November 1. They specify a total prize fund of 478,000 pesos, including 80,000 pesos for first place in men’s open shortboard.
Events include men’s and women’s shortboard and longboard, a mixed under-14 shortboard division, stand-up paddleboard racing, bodyboard, and para surfing. A dog-surf exhibition is also listed.
Finals and awards are scheduled for Sunday, November 1. Heat schedules will be addressed at the athletes’ October 28 briefing, and the rules allow organizers to adjust or suspend competition because of sea conditions, weather, or safety.
The pairing reflects how organizers are presenting Sayulita’s role in the festival. At the October 1 festival presentation, Sylvia Lorena Serafín González, director of Nayarit’s tourism promotion trust, said: “Sayulita is known for its waves and surfing.”
Fitting a visit around Vallarta’s celebrations
The Bahía program overlaps with Puerto Vallarta’s Día de Muertos calendar, which includes the monumental Catrina unveiling November 1 and the city’s parade November 2.
For someone dividing the holiday between both municipalities, those dates create choices rather than a single regional itinerary. A Sayulita visit centered on the surf finals falls on the same day as Vallarta’s Catrina unveiling.
To combine Sayulita’s surf tournament with Bahía’s cultural celebrations in one visit, the scheduled overlap is Saturday, October 31, and Sunday, November 1.
