Round Rock Diwali Festival 2026 at Centennial Plaza

Round Rock Diwali Festival returns Saturday, October 24, 2026, from 1:00 to 10:00 p.m. at Centennial Plaza, 301 West Bagdad Avenue. Admission and parking are free. An older write-up used 2:00 p.m. The organizer site now opens the festival at 1:00.

This is the 10th year, 2016 to 2026. The page says the first gathering was about 1,000 people and now quotes 12,000-plus attendees, 1,000-plus performers, and 100-plus vendors. Those are organizer-scale claims. What you can plan is a free downtown plaza: food, a bazaar, rangoli, kids' painting, and a stage that runs into the night.

The 2026 grid is marked tentative. Bazaar, food, henna, and kids' tables open at 1:00 p.m. Live sets are listed 1:00 to 9:00 p.m. Rangoli and kolam competition is 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Diya lighting by the mayor is 6:50 to 7:15 p.m. Prize talk is 7:15. Taj Fashion's Bollywood show, choreographed by Astha of Junoon Dance, is 7:20 to 7:40 p.m. A free Bollywood workshop by Dance Up Austin sits in the 7:40 to 9:00 block. DJ Rahul holds an open floor 9:15 to 10:00 p.m. Stage managers named on the page are Padmaja Srikaram, Tejal Shah, and Nupur Sharma. Times can move.

The same night, GSGA Navratri is a ticketed garba at Round Rock Sports Center, check-in 6:30 p.m. You can walk Bagdad in the afternoon and still make that floor if you leave before dinner. You cannot treat them as one festival.

FYP ATX is Sunday, October 25. NightMarket.fun is later, November 14, at Lakeline Park. This plaza date is not the weekend after Cedar Park. It is three weeks before.

Who this is for: Austin and Round Rock families who want a free civic Diwali. Skip it if you only wanted indoor garba. That is GSGA, and it costs.

Pets are listed as welcome. Text the organizer rather than calling. Confirm the 1:00 start the week of, in case the tentative grid slides.

Our take: 1 p.m. for food and the bazaar. Stay for the mayor's diya if you only have one evening hour. Leave by 6:15 if the sports-center garba is your night.

When: October 24, 2026 (1–10 p.m.)
Where: Centennial Plaza, 301 W Bagdad Ave, Round Rock, TX 78664

Details at rrdiwalifest.com.