On Saturday, October 24, 2026, Historic Main Street in Lake Elsinore fills with altars, lowriders, and marigolds for the Dia de los Muertos Festival & Car Show. Presented by STUDIO 395, the show runs 4:00 to 9:00 PM with cars lining Main Street between Heald Avenue and Sulphur Street. Owners decorate their rides and build altars in and around them, and the public votes for the awards. Trophies go out for Best In Show and Best Day of the Dead Decorations, with Lakeside Car Club handing out its own hardware. The awards ceremony starts at 8:30 PM. Attendance is free and all ages.
What to Expect at the Festival
Día de los Muertos is a night about remembering people rather than mourning them, and this event leans into that with a path of light and flowers leading through downtown. You’ll see ofrendas with photographs, marigolds, pan de muerto, and candles — plus a car show that turns the tradition into a block party. Vendors, food, and families walking Main Street make it one of the more photogenic nights in the Inland Empire each fall.
That combination — memory, names, and family — is exactly the kind of thing custom engraving is built for.
Engraved Keepsakes for Día de los Muertos
Altars are personal. The pieces on them mean something. A few ways local families and vendors use laser engraving around the holiday:
- Engraved photo frames and memorial plaques — a name, birth year, and a date set into wood or metal, made to sit on an ofrenda year after year instead of a printed photo that curls.
- Custom engraved candles holders and metal keepsakes — marigold and calavera designs etched into stainless or metal, with a family name added.
- Wood plaques for altars and home display — a surname, a short line from a favorite song, or a remembrance that stays up past November 2.
- Coasters, keychains, bottle openers, and cups — practical pieces with sugar-skull and papel picado artwork, good for a family gathering or for a vendor selling at the festival.
- Engraved stainless tumblers — popular for festival-goers walking Main Street, and a solid seller for vendors with a booth.
For Lake Elsinore Vendors and Car Show Participants
If you’re registering a car or setting up a booth on October 24, custom engraving gives you something no printed banner can: trophies, dash plaques, and thank-you pieces with real names and dates on them. We make recognition plaques, engraved award tiles, and personalized dash plaques for car clubs and community events. Vendors can also order small keepsakes — keychains, coasters, bottle openers — that sell at a festival price point without looking mass-produced.
How We Work
8Ball Engraving is a small shop in Fullerton serving all of Southern California. There are no minimums, so a five-piece family order and a fifty-piece vendor run both work. Standard turnaround is 3 to 5 days, and local pickup in Fullerton is available. We engrave on 15+ materials — wood, leather, metal, stainless steel, and cylindrical items — which means an ofrenda frame, a set of coasters, and a batch of tumblers can all come out of one order.
Awards and vendor inventory for the festival should be ordered by early October so proofs and production land well before setup on October 24. Individual keepsakes can be turned around much closer to the date.
Making an Ofrenda Piece That Lasts
Paper photos fade and curl after a season or two in candlelight, which is why families who build a Día de los Muertos altar every year often move to something more permanent. Engraved wood and metal hold up to repeated storage, transport, and display without the print quality degrading, and adding a birth year and a passing year is a small addition that makes the piece personal rather than generic.
We can work from a photograph of a name in a loved one’s handwriting, from a simple typeset name and dates, or from artwork you bring in — marigolds, papel picado, and calavera designs all engrave cleanly. If you’re ordering for an altar this year, send the details by early October so it’s finished well before the festival, though simple pieces can still be turned around inside our normal 3 to 5 day window.
Use code MUERTOSFEST10 for 10% off your order. Tell us what you’re making and we’ll send a quote with a mock-up — request a free quote here.