Head to the desert for the Borrego Springs 45th Annual Desert Festival. The celebration, themed “Art & Soul,” includes a parade, the Miss Borrego pageant, dance parties, live music, art and craft exhibitions and more.- On October 31, the city of Oceanside hosts the 10th Annual Dia del los Muertos celebration at Mission San Luis Rey. The mission grounds will transform into a Mexican plaza with thousands of marigolds that create ‘ofrendas,’ and you can enjoy music, dancing, food booths, a retail mercado and the Chalk Cemetery for creating memorials for lost loved ones.
- Night crawlers enjoy the annual Monster Bash in the Gaslamp Quarter on October 30. This annual outdoor music festival takes over the downtown streets with live musical performances on multiple stages, beer gardens and an extreme costume contest. This ticketed event is for guests ages 21 and older.
- Take advantage of October’s FREE things this last weekend of the month. Kids 11 years-old and younger get free admission into the San Diego Zoo and San Diego Zoo Safari Park, and Hornblower Cruises & Events is offering free San Diego Bay cruises for kids 12 years and younger.
- And of course, don’t forget to check out many of the Halloween festivities for families, and other Halloween happenings like Scream Zone at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, with its 3-D ghost maze, 25-room house of horror and haunted hayrides; The Haunted Hotel in downtown San Diego where haunts from Hollywood’s favorite horror films fill the rooms; and Haunted Trail of Terror in Balboa Park where you’ll need to run for your life through an outdoor maze. I ain’t afraid of no ghost! Ok, that was a lie…