The gate runs 9am to 5pm on both days
Cheekwood brings El Día de los Muertos back for its 27th annual edition on October 31 and November 1, 2026. The estate publishes a 9:00am to 5:00pm gate on both days. A time-entry ticket is required for every guest, and the page warns that parking capacity may be reached. Once the lot fills, walk-up tickets go only to guests arriving by rideshare.
The estate sits at 1200 Forrest Park Drive, roughly 8.5 miles southwest of downtown Nashville, next to Percy Warner Park.
Two prices, two arrivals
Adults pay $23 on site and $18 with off-site parking. Seniors 65 and over pay $21 or $16, college students $19 or $14, and the festival page's table lists youth 3 to 17 as free at both locations. Children 2 and under are free, and member adults and member youth enter free.
Non-members pay a $2 service fee per ticket plus $5 per vehicle for on-site parking. The off-site option is a free lot at Belle Meade Office Park, 4525 Harding Pike, with trolleys running about every 20 minutes in both directions. The organiser states the trolleys are not ADA accessible and carry foldable strollers only. The off-site page prints its own admission table with youth at $11, and it stops selling lot tickets at 3pm on the day of the visit, against a last entry of 2:30pm to 3pm.
All tickets include garden and mansion access.
Why the working window closes at 1pm
The entertainment on the Arboretum Lawn is back-loaded, and the published grid makes the shape plain. Saturday opens 9:00 to 10:00am with DJ Cesar, then Danza Aztlán takes the lawn 10:00 to 10:30. Karina Daza follows 10:30 to 11:00, Mi Cielito Lindo 11:00 to 11:30, Lion B 11:30 to 12:15, Raices De Mi Tierra 12:15 to 12:45 and De Agave y Son 12:45 to 1:30. A second DJ Cesar set runs 1:30 to 2:00 and Danza Aztlán repeats 2:00 to 2:30.
Sunday keeps the same frame with different names: DJ Cesar 9:00 to 10:00, Danza Aztlán 10:00 to 10:30, then Sofia Rhiannon and Gabriella Flores-Rodriguez, Las Cuervonitas, Rachel Rodriguez and Lirios Folkloricos into De Agave y Son at 12:45.
The grid puts one DJ set, the first Danza Aztlán and the open marketplace across 9:00am to 1:00pm. The acts run back to back from 10:30, and the repeat dance and a second DJ set follow 1:30. A visitor with work to finish gets four hours at the front of the day with the lightest programme.
Eighteen vendors and a full day of workshops
The Art and Goods marketplace runs 9:00am to 5:00pm on both days across Parking Lot B and the Frist Learning Center courtyard. The organiser lists 18 sellers, from Apanash and Artesanias Lupita Oaxaca through Bisuteria Nashville, La Casa Azul, Skulls and Roses and Valentina Harper, with Cheekwood's own table among them.
Hands-on activities also run 9:00am to 5:00pm in the Frist Learning Center Great Hall: paper marigold crowns, monarch butterflies and papel picado colouring sheets. The student murals hang in the same hall, and a Memory Tree in Massey Auditorium takes handwritten names and memories. The organiser's own mural application line puts event attendance at over 4,000 visitors.
The café shuts before the gate does
Perenn at Cheekwood, in the Frist Learning Center courtyard, runs Tuesday to Sunday 9:00am to 4:30pm. Full menu service stops at 4:00pm and the counter moves to grab-and-go items until 4:30pm. The holiday hours that shorten the café to a 3:00pm close begin November 3, 2026, so this weekend runs on the regular clock.
Anyone planning to eat before the 5:00pm gate close has a 30-minute grab-and-go window.
The sculpture trail is closed
Cheekwood's site carries a standing notice that the Ann and Monroe Carell Jr. Family Sculpture Trail has been closed since August 3 until further notice, and the visit page attributes the closure to construction. The 1.5-mile woodland path with its ten works and the James Turrell Skyspace is out of the plan for both festival days. The gardens, the mansion and the Great Hall programming are open.
Day rooms inside four miles
The Dayuse read for Nashville returns 36 priced cards from $66 to $170, at a mean of $101.04. Each card carries its own booking fee of $0 to $10. The hotelSlots directory lists 222 Nashville properties by name and street address and publishes no rate on any listing.
Three cards sit closest to the estate pin at 36.0892080, -86.8765950. Hyatt Place Nashville/Green Hills is 3.41 straight-line miles out at $111 with a 10:00-18:00 window. Courtyard by Marriott Nashville Green Hills is 3.48 miles at $91 with windows from 07:00. Hilton Nashville Green Hills is 3.53 miles at $118 with 08:00-14:00 and 10:00-17:00 windows. The 121 Hotel is 5.14 miles at $89 on 11:00-16:00, and it is the one card in the set with no booking fee.
For the 9:00am to 1:00pm block, the Hilton window that opens at 08:00 covers the whole window, and the Courtyard window that runs 07:00 to 13:00 covers it too.
Two questions for the front desk
No page on this beat prints a hotel checkout hour. Ask whether a day booking can start at 08:00 to put a guest at the gate for the 9:00am open, and ask how checkout works on a block that ends in the afternoon.
The festival answers the rest. Reserve a time-entry ticket in advance, choose the free off-site lot at 4525 Harding Pike if arriving by car, and treat the morning as the working half of the day.
