Local Dia De Los Muertos Celebration in Lake Elsinore

Lake Elsinore, CA: STUDIO 395 Foundation, a local non-profit arts cooperative, will be holding their 5th annual Dia De Los Muertos Celebration to take place between 1 and 6 pm on Saturday, October 29, 2016 in the City Park along Main Street of the Historic downtown area. This event is being co-sponsored by the City of Lake Elsinore with additional funding coming from local businesses and Southern California Edison.

This year, in order to coordinate with the City’s monthly Classic Car Cruise held along the downtown shopping corridor, the Dia De Los Muertos artists, vendors and food sales will be in the City Park with limited street closures between Main and Spring Streets. A music performance stage will be set up in the newly refurbished City Park Gazebo with four bands scheduled to play live. Ballet Folkorico and Aztec dance troops will use the newly installed basketball court for their performances. The vendors for this event are focused on theme related or handmade items.

STUDIO 395 will be offering the opportunity for children to join in on craft projects related to the Dia De Los Muertos holiday with the decorating of sugar skulls and the writing and decorating of notes to be placed on devotional altars for deceased loved ones. Food vendors will be located on either side of the park and the community is encouraged to bring their own chairs to sit in the shade and listen to the music all afternoon. The turnout is expected to be approximately 3,000, as it was in 2015.

The Day of the Dead, as celebrated today, is focused on gathering with friends and family for remembering and honoring ancestors and deceased loved ones with the set-up of traditional ofrendas or altars that will be decorated with flowers, photos and mementos and where food and drink will be provided to the spirits. The secular celebration goes back to pre-Columbian times and is a major holiday in Mexico. Today it is celebrated throughout the United States, Europe and Latin America as an opportunity for cultural expression and understanding.

STUDIO 395 began this celebration on the sidewalks of Main St. in 2012, to encourage foot traffic for the local businesses and have an event where artists could create and sell and musicians could perform. The group is very active in the area with projects, events and instruction that will engage all members of the community in artistic and cultural experiences. This year’s Dia De Los Muertos event was briefly cancelled as the group received notice of grant funding from the National Endowment for the Arts of their ARTist Detour project which will convert a city owned lot at the end of Main St. into a seasonal artists village and workshop location. However, after protests from the community, the group worked with the City to find a way to fund and organize the event while still working on the Detour project. The 2015 Dia De Los Muertos event was primarily funded by a Local Impact Grant by the California Arts Council that provides funding for community events focused on arts and culture. For 2016, Southern California Edison, Storm Baseball and local developer, Castle & Cooke, all donated to ensure the event would be held and the City of Lake Elsinore took on key expenses and services as well.

Interest in the event is being generated through a dedicated Facebook page (www.facebook.com/lakeelsinorediadelosmuertos) where regular posts explain about the history and icons of the holiday and the planned activities and participants for this event.

“We are very pleased that this year’s celebration is taking place; it has become a signature event for Lake Elsinore and STUDIO 395. We were so glad to see local businesses step up and assist us with funding so this grass roots community event could continue,” said Rebecca Esquibel, President of STUDIO 395, and a member of the City’s Art and Culture Subcommittee, “Our organization is very involved with trying to revitalize downtown Lake Elsinore. This event, the recently put in place Art on Main Buskers program, and the upcoming ARTist Detour venue are examples of how art and culture can bring out people and have an economic impact on businesses.”

“We see this Dia De Los Muertos event as one that brings out not only our community but those in the area surrounding us to the Historic Downtown area. This year attendees will get to enjoy this event, the Classic Car Cruise, and get a chance to visit the restaurants and businesses on Main St.,” said Johnathan Skinner, Director of the Community Services with the City of Lake Elsinore.

STUDIO 395 is a non-profit artist cooperative with a mission of taking art into the community by engaging the underserved resident of the area and finding opportunities for local artists to create, display, sell and instruct. For more information contact Rebecca Esquibel at rebecca@studio395.org.