The Unity Council Dia de los Muertos Festival got off to a wet start Sunday morning as heavy rain poured over Fruitvale Village in Oakland.

Weather probably kept many would-be attendees home. The festival, now in its 21st year, has drawn as many as 100,000 visitors in past years, but “this year, I’d be happy with 30,000,” said Dana Kleinhesselink, Unity Council’s senior manager of fund development and communications.

But the festival went on at full force nevertheless. Artists stood alongside the altars they’d been commissioned to create. Local business owners greeted people from their booths. Craft makers, some from as far as Oaxaca, Mexico, presented their goods.

Musical artists Banda Los Sebastianes and Funky Latin Orchestra performed live. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, Mayor Libby Schaaf and City Councilman Noel Gallo chatted with constituents.

The Aztec dance troop Nahui-Ehecatl appeared impervious to the rain, performing all morning to the sounds of lively percussion. Umbrella-wielding crowds formed in a circle around them.

Over its 21 years, this Fruitvale festival has evolved into much more than a celebration of the holiday. “It’s really a chance to highlight East Oakland,” said Chris Iglesias, the Unity Council CEO. “It’s a chance for folks to see our artists, support the local business area, give our community here a voice.”

Voter turnout was a focal point of this year’s event. Twenty of the festival’s booths were dedicated to “get out the vote” themes, represented by organizations including the Oakland chapter of the League of Women Voters. Vota (Vote!) signs could be seen around the festival depicting a Donald Trump likeness fashioned as a Day of the Dead-style calavera (skull).

The Dia de los Muertos Festival is now Unity Council’s largest fundraiser of the year, thanks to corporate sponsorships (this year’s main sponsors were AEG, which runs the Oakland Coliseum, and MetroPCS), vendor booth revenue and individual donations. Proceeds help fund Unity Council’s community development work. For example, Unity Council is the largest provider of Head Start in Oakland, which provides early childhood education to more than 900 families in the East Bay. Although Head Start receives federal money, there’s a considerable funding gap between that and its true cost.

Given the low turnout at the festival, Kleinhesselink said she expected they would not reach their fundraising goals this year. “We will have to be a little more creative about how to recoup our costs.”

Despite the precipitation, the unmistakable aroma of incense — a typical component of Dia de los Muertos altars — filled the air throughout Fruitvale Village. Altars, created to honor deceased loved ones, are a central part of the holiday, and while many of the ofrendas (offerings) on the altars are traditional (marigold flowers, pan de muerto, candles, fruit and water), the altars can also be intensely personal, reflecting the personality of the deceased and of the community that survives them.

“Weather conditions don’t stop us from celebrating,” said Gonzalo Hidalgo, who has built an altar for the festival every year for 20 years. “Rain is something that brings life to us. It’s transformation. What is important is to create the portal for the dead to come visit us.”

At the centerpiece of Hidalgo’s altar were marigold flowers arranged in the shape of a giant heart. He called it “La Educacion es Poder” and dedicated it to local educators who had passed away. Inside his booth, a depression in the street surface caused water to rush quickly toward a drain; Hidalgo called it “a river.”

Somos Familia, a Bay Area organization that seeks to encourage acceptance of LGBTQ rights within the Latino community, dedicated its altar to the people who died in the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando in June. “We call it ‘Pulso de Amor’ — pulse of love,” said Mirna Medina, a coordinator for Somos Familia and the mother of a bisexual son.

“We celebrate Dia de los Muertos because dying is not the end,” Medina said. “There’s another cycle that is started.”