On Saturday morning at 11, Marina Park fills up with something it has never hosted. Mundo Catrina is putting on its first Kirkland Catrina Walk. It's a family-friendly Día de los Muertos celebration with live music, cultural performances, art, vendors and family activities, and it ends with a walk through downtown. It runs until 8:30 p.m., and ParentMap lists admission as free.
Just beyond the park's edge, at 80 Kirkland Avenue, The Slip is open again.
Put those two together and you get the shape of Kirkland's season this year. The holiday stretch starts on the waterfront on October 31 and ends four weeks later with the tree lighting in Peter Kirk Park on November 28. Almost everything in between happens indoors or somewhere other than the lake, so the two waterfront additions sit at the very start of the calendar.
The waterfront end: Saturday at Marina Park
The Explore Kirkland listing says the Catrina Walk passes through downtown, but nobody has published a street-by-street route. If you're planning to meet people partway, pick a spot in Marina Park, where the event is based. At nine and a half hours, it's long enough that a morning visit and an evening visit are two different outings. Families with young children may like the daylight hours. The walk itself and the evening music fall closer to the time when people start heading out for Halloween night.
It matters that this event is new. Most of Kirkland's late-fall calendar is made of repeat events: the Turkey Trot, Santa's arrival at Totem Lake, the downtown tree lighting. The Catrina Walk is the one that's new to the list in 2026. Mundo Catrina describes it as a celebration of the beauty, history, artistry and traditions of Día de los Muertos, and the City of Kirkland's community calendar has it on October 31.
The Slip, under new hands
The Slip has been around for 30 years. It closed in September 2025, and WhatNow Seattle reported in April that Ricky and Maria Eng, who also own BeachHouse Bar + Grill in Kirkland, were taking it over. It is now open under Ricky Eng's leadership. On the restaurant's own site, the announcement starts with "A new chapter has arrived to the waterfront at Marina Beach Park!" and says Eng wants to bring new life to the spot.
The menu is a refresh more than a reinvention. The Slip's site lists burgers, returning favorites, salads and pub-style plates, and says weekend brunch is coming soon. The hours are set up for the off-season:
| Days | Hours |
|---|---|
| Sunday through Wednesday | Noon to 8 p.m. |
| Thursday through Saturday | 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. |
Those hours fit nicely with Saturday. The Catrina Walk goes until 8:30, and The Slip serves until 9 on Saturdays, so you can eat dockside right after the walk without leaving the park. Earlier in the week, the 8 p.m. close makes it a dinner stop, not a late one.
The middle weeks move inside
After Halloween, most of downtown Kirkland's event calendar moves indoors to the Kirkland Performance Center. The KPC calendar for November covers a wider range than most people expect from one local stage:
| Date | Show | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Sun, Nov 1 | La Velada: An Alchemy of Past and Present | 3 p.m. |
| Fri, Nov 6 | Emma Willmann | 8 p.m. |
| Sat, Nov 7 | Seattle Deepavali Kondattam with Gopinath | 3 p.m. |
| Thu, Nov 12 | Revisiting Creedence | 7 p.m. |
| Sat, Nov 14 | GUNJAN: Raga, Retro & Remix | 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. |
| Fri, Nov 20 | Piff the Magic Dragon | 8 p.m. |
| Sun, Nov 22 | Seattle International Comedy Competition semifinals | 7 p.m. |
| Mon, Nov 23 | Warren Miller's "Days Off" | 7 p.m. |
| Sun, Nov 29 | Susan Rice Live at KPC | 5 p.m. |
Several of these continue themes from the Saturday events at the waterfront. La Velada plays the afternoon after the Catrina Walk. The Deepavali Kondattam on November 7 and GUNJAN a week later both put South Asian music and celebration on the KPC stage in the first half of the month. The Warren Miller film on the Monday before Thanksgiving is the yearly signal for anyone already thinking about the mountains. On the Sunday after Thanksgiving, Susan Rice's 5 p.m. show is the last item on KPC's November calendar.
The dates that happen elsewhere in town
The three biggest outdoor events between the two downtown bookends take place in other neighborhoods. Each is a short drive from downtown.
- Kirkland Turkey Trot, Sunday, November 15, 9 a.m., Juanita Bay Park. There are 5K, 10K and kids' races, according to Explore Kirkland's events listing. This is the one big outdoor gathering of the month near the lake.
- Santa's Arrival Party, Saturday, November 21, 10:30 a.m., The Village at Totem Lake. It takes place on The Village Green near Cinemark, 11901 N.E. Village Plaza, and Santa photos start at 11, per the event listing.
- Santa-letter mailboxes, November 19 through December 19, downtown. The Kirkland Downtown Association is putting them at the corner of Kirkland Avenue and Lake Street and at the plaza at Kirkland Urban.
The mailbox on Kirkland Avenue and Lake Street is the link between the two ends of the season. It sits at the same downtown waterfront corner as The Slip's address, and it stays up from the week before Thanksgiving well into December. That makes it an easy stop for a family coming downtown for lunch or a walk along the water.
One trail note for the weeks between. King County scheduled a closure of the Cross Kirkland Corridor between NE 52nd Street and 108th Avenue NE starting as early as September 8. The work covers a damaged culvert under the Eastside Interceptor Section 14 sewer pipe, a new retaining wall and stabilization of the nearby stream, and it was expected to last three months. The City of Kirkland's notice says a detour is available and asks people to stay out of the work area. If your usual walk or ride uses that stretch, check King County's project page before you go.
The closing end: WinterFest and 6:15 at Peter Kirk Park
The season comes back downtown on Saturday, November 28, the weekend after Thanksgiving. Kirkland Urban's WinterFest announcement, posted October 15, lists the event from 3 to 7 p.m. at 425 Urban Plaza. The Kirkland Downtown Association describes WinterFest as free, open to all ages, and hosted jointly by Kirkland Urban and the KDA.
The one time to remember is 6:15 p.m. That's when the Kirkland Downtown Association lights the tree in Peter Kirk Park, according to the same Kirkland Urban announcement. WinterFest ends 45 minutes later, so the lighting is the last big moment of the afternoon. If you get there at 3, you'll have a long afternoon. If you get there around 6, you'll see the part most people come for. Older city newsletters from last year list a different date for the tree lighting, so use the 2026 announcement when you put it on the calendar.
Four weekends, four weeks apart
Laid out end to end, the season looks like this:
- Saturday, October 31: Catrina Walk at Marina Park, 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., with The Slip open until 9 next door.
- Sunday, November 15: Turkey Trot at Juanita Bay Park, 9 a.m.
- Saturday, November 21: Santa's Arrival Party at The Village at Totem Lake, 10:30 a.m.
- Saturday, November 28: WinterFest at Kirkland Urban, 3 to 7 p.m., and the tree lighting in Peter Kirk Park at 6:15.
In between, the KPC stage has a show almost every weekend, and the Kirkland Avenue mailbox goes up on November 19. The Catrina Walk and the reopened Slip are the two new things on this year's calendar, and both are on the waterfront at the very start of the season.
If you'd like a neighbor's take on which part of downtown Kirkland fits your weekends best, from the Marina Park end to the Peter Kirk Park end, the team at PBNW Homes is glad to talk it through with you, even if you aren't planning a move. Work With Us.
