Grapes underfoot, balloons overhead
Welcome back to The Santa Fe Weekender: five handpicked things worth your weekend, no scrolling required. October’s here, and it’s the best kind of fall weekend. The National Weather Service has Saturday mostly sunny near 72 and Sunday sunny near 72, with an east breeze. Nights drop into the upper 40s, so if you’re chasing balloons before sunrise, dress for the dark.
The main thing
The Santa Fe Harvest Festival at El Rancho de las Golondrinas. It’s this weekend only, Saturday and Sunday, October 3 and 4, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the living-history museum south of town (334 Los Pinos Road, about 20 minutes from the Plaza).
It’s the old ranch doing what it was built for: bringing in the harvest. You can tie your own red chile ristra, pick a pumpkin from the patch, and watch grapes get stomped at the old winery from noon to 3. There are hayrides from noon to 3, corn-husk dolls for the kids, live music, artisan vendors and food. Harley the Buffalo is receiving visitors from 11 to 3. On Saturday it opens with the traditional San Ysidro procession and Mass, 10:15 a.m. to noon. San Ysidro is the patron saint of farmers, so it’s the right way to start a harvest festival.
Adults $10; seniors 62+, teens, veterans and students $8; kids 12 and under free. Here’s the catch: tickets are sold online only, at HoldMyTicket.com, and there’s no cash at the gate (cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay are fine). Buy before you get in the car. Details at golondrinas.org. No pets except service animals.
Eat
Horseman’s Haven Cafe, 4354 Cerrillos Road. It’s on your way out to Golondrinas, and it’s been a Santa Fe green chile institution since 1981. The chile comes in two strengths, and the menu means it when it says the hotter one hurts. Order a breakfast burrito smothered in the regular and work your way up. Saturday 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., Sunday 8:30 to 2. It’s a walk-in diner with no reservations, so expect a short wait at peak brunch. Call 505-471-5420 if you want to check before you go.
The Range Café, 925 South Camino del Pueblo, Bernalillo. Driving down for the balloons? This is the breakfast stop. It’s right off I-25 between Santa Fe and Balloon Fiesta Park, it opens at 7:30 a.m. every day, and it has a bakery case worth a detour on its own. After a 4 a.m. start, a plate of huevos and a pastry for the road is earned. Expect Fiesta-week crowds.
See
Emmi Whitehorse’s last day at the Wheelwright. Intimate Landscapes Part II closes Sunday, October 4, and it goes out on one of the museum’s Free Sundays: doors open at noon, admission is free until 5 p.m., and there’s a free talk at 1. Whitehorse is a Diné painter from near Crownpoint, and for four decades she’s made paintings that look like the land seen from very close and very far at once: drifting marks, botanical shapes, fields of color that read like weather. Part II focuses on line and form.
The Wheelwright is at 704 Camino Lejo on Museum Hill. While you’re there, the silver-and-turquoise work in Silver Honors Stone: The Work of Julian Lovato is on view through October 17. If Sunday doesn’t work, the museum is open Saturday 10 to 5 ($10).
Do
Get up in the dark for the Balloon Fiesta. The 2026 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta opens Saturday, October 3, and runs through the 11th. Both weekend mornings follow the same script: Dawn Patrol at 6, Morning Glow at 6:30, and the Mass Ascension at 7, when hundreds of balloons inflate and rise off the field around you. Saturday adds Opening Ceremonies at 6:55. Admission is $20 plus a fee ($22.24) per session, and kids 12 and under are free.
The easy way from here is Tourism Santa Fe’s shuttle: $55 plus a $3.75 fee, admission not included. It leaves the Eldorado Hotel at 4:30 a.m., La Fonda at 4:45 and the Courtyard Marriott on Cerrillos at 5:10, and starts back at 9:30, so you’re home by 10:30 or 11. Book it at santafe.org, and buy your admission separately at balloonfiesta.com. Can’t face a 4 a.m. alarm? The evening sessions have a balloon glow at 6:30 and AfterGlow fireworks at 8. Everything that flies is weather-permitting, so check the Fiesta’s site or app before you leave.
Also on
Archaeology Fair, Saturday 10 to 3, free, at the Center for New Mexico Archaeology (7 Old Cochiti Road). You can throw an atlatl, watch flintknapping and make your own clay pot. Tours of the state’s archaeology repository run at 10:30, noon and 1:30. It’s a great one for kids.
Nambé Pueblo Feast Day, Sunday. The feast of San Francisco de Asís, Nambé’s patron saint. Visitors are welcome to watch the dances respectfully: stay silent, don’t applaud, and don’t photograph, record or sketch without permission. Homes are by invitation only. Dance times aren’t posted, so call the Governor’s office at 505-455-4410.
The Saturday Farmers’ Market, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Railyard. It’s peak chile-roasting season, and you can smell it from the parking lot.
The aspens are still going. Ski Santa Fe’s fall chairlift rides run Saturday and Sunday 10 to 3, with live music, and again next weekend before they close for the season. Tickets are sold at the mountain. Details at skisantafe.com.
On stage: The Met’s Così fan tutte is live in HD at the Lensic Saturday at 11 a.m. Brooklyn Rider plays Philip Glass string quartets there Sunday at 3 ($36 to $115, lensic.org). Saturday night’s Hampton Sides talk, marking 20 years of Blood and Thunder, is sold out.
Looking ahead: Snarky Puppy plays the Lensic October 9 and Molly Tuttle plays The Bridge October 10. The Santa Fe International Film Festival runs October 14 to 19, and Pam Grier receives its Lifetime Achievement Award on the 17th. SITE Santa Fe reopens October 16 with Larry Bell, Sayre Gomez and Sara Genn, and an opening party from 5 to 8.
That’s the weekend. If a friend would love it, forward it their way. They can subscribe at thesantafeweekender.com.
See you next Friday, The Santa Fe Weekender
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