Things you only see in New Mexico

People who move to Santa Fe tend to say the same thing after a year: there is always something on. Some of it is small and local. Some of it is the only one of its kind in the world. These are the ones in the second category, in calendar order.

Spanish Market, late July

The Spanish Colonial Arts Society has run Spanish Market on the Plaza since 1926. Santos, retablos, bultos, tinwork, straw appliqué, colcha embroidery, and furniture, all made in the northern New Mexico tradition by artists who mostly learned it from their families. The work is juried and the market is a weekend. Winter Spanish Market, in December, is the smaller version.

International Folk Art Market, July

The same month, on Museum Hill. Artists from more than 50 countries sell directly to buyers for one weekend, and the money mostly goes home with them. It is the largest folk art market in the world, and it happens in a town of 90,000 people.

The Santa Fe Opera, July and August

The Opera sits on a mesa seven miles north of town, off US 84/285 past Tesuque. The Crosby Theatre is open on the sides and at the back, so the sunset over the Jemez is part of the first act and the lightning in August sometimes is too. People tailgate in the parking lot beforehand in evening dress, with candles on the tailgates. The season runs from late June to late August, five operas in rotation.

Santa Fe Indian Market, August

The third weekend of August, run by SWAIA since 1922. It is the largest Native American art market in the world: more than a thousand artists from over a hundred tribes and pueblos, filling the Plaza and the streets around it. Collectors line up before dawn for specific booths. The Friday night preview and the Saturday morning best-of-show are where the serious buying happens, but you can walk the market on Sunday and still see work that will be in museums.

Hotels downtown book out a year ahead. If you own a home near the Plaza, this is the weekend your friends call.

Chile season, late August through September

Not an event so much as a smell. Roasters go up at the Farmers’ Market in the Railyard and outside every grocery store in town. The chile comes from Hatch, in the south, and from small growers up north in Chimayó and Velarde. Hatch holds its own Chile Festival on Labor Day weekend, four hours south, but you do not need to go. The roasters come to you.

Fiesta de Santa Fe and Zozobra, September

The oldest community celebration in the country, since 1712, and a 50-foot puppet burned in front of a crowd of tens of thousands. We wrote a guide to Fiesta week.

The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, October

The first nine days of October. Several hundred hot air balloons lift off together at dawn from a field on the north side of Albuquerque, an hour south of Santa Fe. It is the most photographed event in the world by some counts, and the mass ascension is worth the 4 a.m. alarm at least once. Balloons sometimes drift as far as Santa Fe on the right wind.

Roswell UFO Festival, July

Three hours southeast, in the town where something crashed in 1947. A parade, a costume contest, and lectures by people who are very sure. It is the one on this list we include for completeness.

What this means if you live here

Most of these happen within a few miles of the Plaza, and the rest are a drive you can do in a day. The practical effect on real estate is simple: the neighborhoods you can walk to the Plaza from, the Eastside, Downtown, and South Capitol, carry a premium partly because of weekends like these. Further out, in Eldorado or Las Campanas, you trade the walk for the view and drive in. We can talk through which trade suits you.