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Xcaret Tours › EventsUpdated 2026-09-22

Events at Xcaret

Hours, prices and access verified by the Xcaret Tours team — last checked 2026-09-22.

One festival here has firm dates for 2026, one performance runs every evening of the year, and one famous annual event is not happening at all. Most pages about xcaret tickets still list that last one as an annual fixture. It was suspended in April, and this page says so.

What is dated right now, and what is not

Below is every event you can plan a date around, and what each one costs you beyond the admission you already hold. Where Grupo Xcaret publishes no date and no price, the table tells you that rather than guessing at one for you.

EventWhenSeparate ticket?Status
Festival of Life and Death Traditions30 Oct – 2 Nov 2026NoConfirmed, 20th edition
Gala concert, Pandora and Flans31 Oct 2026YesSold separately
Xcaret México EspectacularEvery eveningNoIncluded with every grade of ticket
Festival de Arte Popular MexicanoNot dated for 2026Not publishedNamed by the operator as an annual festival
Travesía Sagrada MayaNot running in 2026—Suspended, April 2026
Check before you travel for an event. Dates here were confirmed on 22 September 2026 from the festival's own site and from Grupo Xcaret. If you are building a trip around one of them, confirm it again with the operator in the week before you fly, and hold a fare you can move.

Festival of Life and Death Traditions, 30 October to 2 November 2026

This is the park's Day of the Dead festival and its twentieth edition. It runs across four days, from 30 October to 2 November 2026, and the guest state is Guanajuato. The festival programme is concerts, theatre and dance, built around honouring the dead rather than around a single headline act.

What it costs you is the part nobody publishes. No separate festival ticket price appears on the operator's site, so the admission you buy for those days is an ordinary admission. If you want the gala concert by Pandora and Flans on 31 October, that is sold separately, and residents of Quintana Roo, Yucatán, Campeche and Guanajuato get a discounted rate.

The other thing to know is the weather. October is by a wide margin the wettest month of the year on the nearest official record, so a festival trip and a rain jacket go together. The month-by-month figures show how large the gap is.

Travelling for the festival?

The festival runs on ordinary park admission, so the fare you pick is the same decision as on any other day — and the show still runs each evening.

See the Xcaret toursCompare every tour

The Travesía Sagrada Maya is not running in 2026

The Travesía Sagrada Maya is the canoe crossing to Cozumel that Grupo Xcaret has staged for years, a re-enactment of the pilgrimage that gave the settlement here its reason to exist. In April 2026 the company suspended the 2026 crossing. Around 333 rowers from Playa del Carmen, Cancún, Tulum and Cozumel had already been cast, along with some 300 volunteers.

The company's own explanation was that it withdrew voluntarily, to avoid the event being read as a confrontation with the cultural-heritage authorities after a Supreme Court ruling on the use of Maya symbology. It has not said whether the suspension is temporary or permanent, and that depends on how the heritage law settles.

So: do not build a trip around it, and treat any page still advertising it as an annual fixture with suspicion. If you want the story behind the crossing itself, it is on the history page.

The performance that runs every evening

Xcaret México Espectacular is the closing performance, and unlike the festival it is not an event you have to time a trip for. It runs every evening in the Gran Tlachco theatre, lasts two hours, and carries a cast the operator puts at more than 300. Every grade of ticket includes it, the night ticket included.

It is the reason your coach leaves at 10 p.m. rather than at six, and the single thing travellers name most often when they say the day was worth it. The only paid version is the seven-course dinner served during it, which gets you a reserved seat.

Tickets for events, and what is not published

Being straight with you about the gaps is more useful than filling them. Grupo Xcaret publishes no admission price for any grade of ticket and no festival price either, so you will not see one here. What it does publish is that children aged four and under go in free, and that buying early online can save you up to 15%, without saying what counts as early.

The gala concert is the only item here sold as a separate ticket, and the operator's events page carries no price for it. The Festival de Arte Popular Mexicano is named as an annual festival with no 2026 dates attached, so this page does not give it any.

Asked about events here

When is the Festival of Life and Death?
From 30 October to 2 November 2026, its twentieth edition, with Guanajuato as the guest state and a gala concert sold separately on 31 October. Discounted admissions exist for residents of Quintana Roo, Yucatán, Campeche and Guanajuato. No price is published for any of it.
Is the Travesía Sagrada Maya happening in 2026?
No. Grupo Xcaret suspended the 2026 Travesía Sagrada Maya in April, saying it did so voluntarily to avoid the event being read as a confrontation with the cultural-heritage authorities after a Supreme Court ruling on the use of Maya symbology. Around 333 rowers had already been cast. The company has not said whether it returns.
What is Xcaret México Espectacular, and how long is it?
Xcaret México Espectacular is the park's closing performance, staged in the Gran Tlachco theatre with a cast the operator puts at more than 300. It runs two hours and moves chronologically from the pre-Columbian era through the Conquest, the colonial centuries, independence and the Revolution, closing with mariachi and the park's own singers. It is included with every grade of ticket.
What is the night ticket, and when does it start?
Xcaret at Night lets you in from four in the afternoon and keeps you until closing. The underground rivers still shut at 5:30, the aquarium at 6:45 and the butterfly pavilion and aviary at 6:30, so an afternoon arrival costs you most of the water. What it buys instead is the horse show, the flyers, the pre-Hispanic dances and the evening performance.
Is anything closed on Sundays?
The park itself opens every day of the week. What changes is the combination tickets: on the two-day combination, the Chichén Itzá and Xplor legs are not offered on Sundays, so a Sunday booking narrows your choice to the other parks. Nothing inside Xcaret is affected.

How this page is kept current

It was last checked on 22 September 2026, against the festival's own site, Grupo Xcaret's events page and the April 2026 reporting on the suspension. Three things would change it: the festival publishing its 2027 dates, the operator dating the Arte Popular festival, or any statement from the company about whether the crossing returns.

Until one of those happens, what you have read above is what is known. The nightly show and the four festival days are the only two things here you can plan a trip around.

Days that stay for the evening performance

Next: read why the crossing mattered, check what October is like, or compare every fare on Xcaret Tours.