Old Man Gloom burns tonight
Welcome back to The Santa Fe Weekender — five handpicked things worth your weekend, no scrolling required. Last week we told you he was coming. Tonight he burns. A fifty-foot marionette stuffed with the whole city’s gloom goes up in flames after dark at Fort Marcy, and Fiesta season — nine days of it — begins. Here’s your guide to all of it.
The main thing
Old Man Gloom burns tonight — the 102nd Burning of Zozobra, at Fort Marcy Park. This is the one night Santa Fe gathers in the dark to set its troubles on fire. All year the city feeds a towering marionette its regrets — old love letters, foreclosure notices, bad diagnoses, worse luck — and tonight, groaning and flailing his white arms, he goes up in flames so everyone can start clean. This year’s theme is The Tyranny of Gloom vs. the Spirit of ‘76, a nod to the country’s 250th. Gates open at 4 p.m.; the burn comes after dark, around nine, weather and wind permitting. Tickets are $30 in advance online, $40 at the gate — buy ahead at burnzozobra.com. Kids 10 and under are free with a ticketed adult, and mind the clear-bag rule: clear plastic bags only, no backpacks, purses, or coolers. Leave the car at home — the streets around the park close off, so walk, bike (there’s free bike valet), or catch a shuttle. And Zozobra is only the match that lights the fuse: Fiesta de Santa Fe — its 314th — runs September 5 through 13. The rest of this issue is your map to it.
Eat
The Shed, half a block off the Plaza on East Palace Avenue — the red chile the whole town swears by, served in a rambling 1690s adobe since 1953. Order the red enchiladas and the mocha cake, and go early; the wait during Fiesta runs out the door for a reason. One catch: it’s closed Sundays, so make it a weekday or Saturday stop.
And on the Plaza itself: once Fiesta gets going, the square fills with food booths (September 11 to 13) — frito pies, tamales, roasted corn, bizcochitos. The whole point is to eat standing up, in the crowd, off a paper plate. Come hungry.
Do
This is the heart of it — Fiesta lives on the Plaza. The Fine Arts & Crafts Market takes over the square the opening weekend (September 5 to 7) and again for the finale (September 11 to 13), with free music from the bandstand. Two parades crown the closing weekend: the Desfile de los Niños — the Pet Parade — Saturday the 12th in the morning, when half the city’s kids and dogs (and the odd goat) circle the Plaza in costume, and the Historical/Hysterical Parade on Sunday the 13th at 1 p.m., equal parts pageant and gentle self-mockery. And for the grandest sound of the season, the Mariachi Extravaganza opens Fiesta at the Santa Fe Opera on September 5.
See
The Fiesta Mass and the candlelight procession, Sunday, September 13. Fiesta is a party, but it started three centuries ago as a vow, and it still closes like one. The morning brings the Fiesta Mass at nine at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis, just off the Plaza. Then, after dark, the city walks it home: a Mass of thanksgiving followed by a candlelight procession that traditionally climbs to the Cross of the Martyrs on the hill above downtown — a slow river of small flames in the dark. If you do none of the rest, do this.
Also on
It’s peak green chile season. The roasters are going full tilt now — that smell of Hatch and Chimayó chile turning in the drum is September in New Mexico. Swing by the Santa Fe Farmers Market on Saturday morning (8 a.m. to 1 at the Railyard), buy a bag fresh off the roaster, and get it in the freezer. You’ll thank yourself in January.
A note on the week: Fiesta fills the whole city — hotels, tables, parking, all of it. If you’re coming in for the parades or the Mass next weekend, sort your plans now.
That’s the weekend — and the week ahead. If a friend would love it, forward it their way — they can subscribe at thesantafeweekender.com.
¡Que viva la Fiesta! See you next Friday, The Santa Fe Weekender
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