Festival of the Skeletons

Bradenton's Village of the Arts marks Día de los Muertos with the 22nd Festival of the Skeletons, the neighborhood's biggest event of the year. Frida Kahlo, who has been honored at past festivals too, takes the main Community Village Shrine. Galleries in the district's restored 1920s and 1930s cottages build their own altars to family members, cultural figures and even pets. A Memory Wall collects photographs, notes and keepsakes left for the dead. Strolling musicians, live music, food trucks and pop-up art vendors fill the streets of a live-work district where the city has long allowed artists to make and sell work from their homes.