Grand Dashain Mela 2026 at the Nepali Community Center

The Nepali Association of Northern California is listing The Grand Dashain Mela for Saturday, October 10, 2026, at the Nepali Community Center, 369 Chesley Avenue, Richmond. Entry is free.

The page promises Durga Puja and jamara distribution, live music, dance, Nepali food, a marketplace, a kids' zone, and giveaways. That is the attraction list NANC is selling. Stage times are not broken out as a minute-by-minute grid.

Hours are not safe to treat as one number. The event header and the details sidebar say 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. The flyer art on the same page prints 12:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. The body text block still shows 12:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., which reads like a midnight typo. Do not publish any of those strings as the locked clock until NANC reprints one clean line.

The date and the Chesley address are the facts that hold. Vendor and performer sign-ups run through granddashainmela2026.tixfix.ai. Organizer phone on the page is 510-520-8484. Email is hello@nancusa.org. The venue block also lists 510-846-0908 for the community center.

This is Richmond, California, west of Berkeley, not Richmond Hill in the GTA. Chesley Avenue is a residential-and-center block, not a downtown plaza. Drive, or plan a long AC Transit last stretch.

The Nepali Community Center is NANC's home base for language, temple, and rental programs on the same campus, so the mela sits inside a year-round building, not a borrowed park. Parking is neighborhood and center-lot parking. Arrive with a plan if you are carrying trays or kids.

Dashain is Nepal's major autumn festival season, timed around family gatherings, blessings, and jamara. A community-center mela is how Bay Area Nepali households recreate that weekend without flying home. Expect the food line and the kids' zone to set the pace more than a single headliner clock.

NANC is also recruiting food vendors, business booths, performers, volunteers, and sponsors through the same tixfix.ai form. If you are attending, not vending, you can ignore that path and just show up free once the doors are actually open.

The same weekend is dense for Hindu fall dates. Sanskriti is already open at Newark Pavilion. Abahan is October 10–11 at ICC Milpitas. 626 Night Market is October 9–11 at the Pleasanton fairgrounds. Dashain is the Nepali card if that is your calendar.

Who this is for: Bay Area Nepali families who want jamara, Nepali food, and a community-center mela on Chesley. Skip it if you needed a single printed hour tonight. Ask NANC. Skip it if you meant a Bengali hall puja in Newark or Milpitas. Those are different organizers and different rooms.

Our take: go if Chesley is your map and free entry is the plan. Confirm the start time by phone or a fresh screenshot of the NANC page the morning of. Treat 11 a.m. and noon as maybes, not promises, until the org cleans the clock.

When: October 10, 2026 (hours not locked; page lists 11 a.m.–10 p.m., flyer noon–10 p.m., and a midnight typo)
Where: Nepali Community Center, 369 Chesley Ave, Richmond, CA 94801