"The parade started 50 years ago with some local homeowners who had nothing to do in July," Mike Hardin told The Desert Sun in 2014. He owned The Lock Shop and chaired the golf cart parade committee. In its early days, eight or ten carts rolled down the frontage road along Highway 111, past Keedy's Fountain Grill and the old Palm Desert Rexall Drugs. Over the years it turned into a "Christmas in July" event, and one early photo from the Historical Society of Palm Desert shows a cart dressed up as a snowman.
On Sunday, October 25, 2026, that parade turns 62. It now runs down El Paseo, and it has company. Across October and November, the street hosts the 20th Paint El Paseo Pink walk and the 20th Thanksgiving Day 5K. Every event on this fall's El Paseo calendar was started by a local organization raising money or building community for people who live in the Coachella Valley. Most of them began small and kept going for decades.
Six Days Out, the Biggest Crowd of the Month Gathers at The Gardens
The month's first big event comes first on the calendar. The 20th Anniversary Paint El Paseo Pink is Saturday, October 10, at The Gardens on El Paseo. Kickoff is at 7:30 a.m. and the walk starts at 8 a.m. The Desert Cancer Foundation's event FAQ describes a one-mile loop that takes about an hour, with parking at The Gardens, 73545 El Paseo.
The scale has grown a long way from eight carts on a frontage road. NBC Palm Springs reported in July that more than 100 teams usually take part, and organizers hoped to draw over 2,000 walkers for the 20th year. The money stays close to home. The foundation says proceeds go to financial assistance for local residents facing cancer.
Individual registration includes a T-shirt. The online form didn't show a price when we checked, so confirm the current fee on the Desert Cancer Foundation's event page before you sign up.
The walk has a history on the storefront side too. In 2019, The Desert Sun counted more than 50 El Paseo merchants with pink-ribbon window displays, and several held their own fundraisers. We haven't found any 2026 announcement about storefront plans this year. Treat the pink windows as a tradition with a past, not a promise for October 10.
Thursday Nights Belong to Civic Center Park
The City of Palm Desert's free Concerts in the Park series fills the weeknights between those two Saturday mornings. Shows start at 6 p.m. every Thursday at the Civic Center Park Amphitheater. The series opened October 1 with Mirage, and four dates are left this month:
- October 8: y2k2k!
- October 15: Franklin Wall
- October 22: 80'z All-Stars
- October 29: MJ Vibes
That lineup lands right on top of the big weekends. The October 8 concert falls two days before the pink walk, and the October 22 show falls three days before the parade. With the city's schedule and the two El Paseo events together, one stretch of Palm Desert hosts a free gathering in nearly every week of the month.
Up the Hill, The Living Desert Sticks to Its Own Rhythm
South of El Paseo, The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens runs its fall on a separate track. The calendar lists the Fall Plant Sale on October 17 and Howl-O-Ween 2026 on October 31. The plant sale falls on the Saturday between the pink walk and the parade. For anyone redoing a yard with desert plants before the cooler months, it's one of the more practical dates of the season.
November shifts toward camps. Fall Mini ZooCamp is November 11, Wild at Heart, a ZooCamp for adults, is November 14, and Fall ZooCamp is November 23.
WildLights is still unscheduled. The zoo's WildLights page says the 2025 season has ended and that a 2026 season is coming, but it hasn't posted dates. Keep an eye on livingdesert.org if the holiday lights are part of your plans.
Parade Day, Hour by Hour
By October 25, the parade's 1960s frontage-road beginnings have grown into a full day on El Paseo. According to the Palm Springs Life event listing, the schedule goes like this:
- 8 a.m. Palm Desert Rotary Club pancake breakfast at El Paseo and San Luis Rey.
- 9 a.m. Entertainment, food and drink vendors, marketplace booths, a custom golf cart show and a classic car show.
- Noon. The parade heads west along El Paseo from San Luis Rey toward Ocotillo.
Curbside viewing is free. The listing suggests bringing chairs or blankets. The official parade site also lists VIP, veteran and senior seating, plus float registration and marketplace booths for local businesses that want to sell or share information. The contact address on the site is [email protected].
The official 2026 materials don't name a theme, a grand marshal or a street-closure schedule yet. If you need to know about road access along El Paseo that morning, check the parade site closer to the date. The listing does tell you where the crowd will gather, though. The breakfast and the parade start share the same corner at San Luis Rey, so the east end of the route fills up first.
The Desert Sun's 2014 history says the parade first ran in 1961 and became an annual event in 1964. It started as a summer break from boredom for a few homeowners. Today it's an autumn tradition, and Rotary still serves breakfast at the starting line.
What's New Along the Route
Between the big weekends, El Paseo has two new names to check out.
YOZU, a Modern Asian Bistro, now occupies the former Shorebird space at The Shops on El Paseo, 73061 El Paseo. KESQ reported that Shorebird closed on May 12, 2026, after about two years, and that Wild Thyme planned to reopen the space as YOZU in August. The Coachella Valley Independent gave August 26 as the planned opening date. The paper described a menu drawing on Japan, Korea, China and Southeast Asia, pitched as the "Spirit of Tokyo's Izakaya Culture." It also noted the only other location appears to be in Windhoek, Namibia. YOZU's website now lists the Palm Desert location with hours and online ordering. It's an easy dinner after a Thursday concert or a late lunch once the parade carts have gone by.
FP Movement opened October 1, 2026, at The Gardens on El Paseo, Space #1316. That puts it inside the same center where pink-walk participants will park and gather nine days after it opened.
The Calendar Keeps Going Into November
El Paseo's next milestone comes on Thanksgiving morning. Martha's Village & Kitchen holds the 20th anniversary of its Thanksgiving Day 5K on El Paseo on November 26, starting at 8 a.m. The race raises money for the organization's work on hunger and homelessness in the Coachella Valley. That makes two 20th anniversaries on the same street this fall, both run by local nonprofits and both starting at 8 a.m.
Need help planning parade-day parking or picking a spot along the route? Or are you thinking about how El Paseo's event calendar fits into life in South Palm Desert? Team Armstrong follows this street all year, from the first pink ribbon to the last cart heading toward Ocotillo. Contact Us anytime. We're happy to share what we know.
