Five Things to Do This Weekend

1 Lean into fall.

Aspencade Music & Arts Festival

As honey-hued leaves hit their peak, Aspencade Music & Arts Festival brings live music and an arts market to Red River this weekend, making a trip to the little mountain town a big experience. “We definitely have some fall colors here in town,” says Max Khudiakov, director of economic development and tourism in Red River. “There are all sorts of Jeep tours visitors can take to see the colors up higher in the mountains.”

Live music takes over Brandenburg Park during the day and the Motherlode Saloon in the evenings, featuring artists such as Diné blues rocker Levi Platero, Americana songstress Summer Dean, and country crooner Sundance Head, who won the NBC competition show, The Voice. An arts market at Brandenburg Park lets shoppers peruse a collection of handcrafted jewelry, home goods, and more while enjoying the tunes. “We have a new addition to the fest on Saturday,” Khudiakov says. “A cherry pie-eating contest at the Red River Conference Center is at noon. People can win two weekend passes for next year’s Aspencade fest, a trophy, and bragging rights.” The festival happens Friday through Sunday.

Oktoberfest

The Ruidoso community is still feeling the devastation caused by the Salt and South Fork fires, and the flooding that came after. On Saturday, help them find some relief while enjoying a local brew at Downshift Brewing Company’s Riverside location from 2 to 10 p.m. Celebrate Oktoberfest with brews, German bites, and activities—like contests for best costume, chicken dancing, stein hoisting—and raise money for the Collective Good fund. The fest includes live music from local favorites the Doso Dirtbags, Red Light Cameras, and others.

2 Sip and snack in the capital city.

An annual culinary shebang, the Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta brings foodies and oenophiles from around the country to enjoy dinners, tastings, and parties where chefs and wineries work together to make delicious pairings. The 33rd annual festival still has tickets available to some of the events, while others are sold out. Grab what’s left ASAP if you want to attend.

3 Listen to world music at Civic Plaza.  

For nearly 20 years, ¡Globalquerque! has taken Albuquerque by storm, bringing a slew of musicians from around the world to perform in the Duke City. “Our mission is to create cross-cultural understanding through music and the arts,” says Tom Frouge, executive director of the festival. “We believe by exposing people to other cultures, we start to recognize our similarities, and celebrate our differences.”

The 2024 iteration will be the 19th live year of ¡Globalquerque!, which started in 2005. For the first time, downtown Albuquerque will host the festival with an opening party at the Albuquerque Museum and concerts at Civic Plaza. “We had to look at it with new eyes,” Frouge says of moving the event. “This is a 2.0 version, where different parts of the festival happen in different locations.”

Catch new genres and performances by ensembles from Senegal, Mexico, Spain, and Sweden. “We’re one of the only music festivals of our kind that brings global acts all together,” he says. “They aren’t the spice on the side stage.” This year everything is free to attend.

4 Make it a three-for-all.

Three new art exhibitions open at the New Mexico State University Art Museum in Las Cruces on Friday: Warhol & Friends, Carolyn Salas: Night Vision, and Carlos Rosales-Silva: Border Destroyer.

Warhol & Friends features works from the museum’s collection that represent the use of patterns and repetition, while highlighting artistic collaboration. It takes over the Bunny Conlon Modern & Contemporary Art Gallery through July 19, 2025.

Carolyn Salas: Night Vision is a site-specific installation of chromatic sculptures with both geometric and figurative elements, which Salas created during a residency at the university. She used research into dream analysis and healing therapies to inform the works, which speak to the power of women, resilience, and art history. See them through March 8, 2025.  

Carlos Rosales-Silva: Border Destroyer shows work by the New York–based muralist who created a site-specific piece that delves into problematic land boundaries and border control. Born in El Paso, Rosales-Silva is intimately familiar with borderlands and the unique issues that are born from them. His mural pulls visual inspiration from that region, including both Mexican and Indigenous culture. See his work in the Mullennix Bridge Gallery through March 8, 2025.

5 Make a stop in the Railyard.

SITE Santa Fe

SITE Santa Fe knows how to throw a party. Attend one Friday from 5 to 8 p.m. to celebrate the opening of the new exhibition, Tristan Duke: Glacial Optics, with a DJ set from DJ Garronteed, food from Mas Chile, and sips by Rolling Still.

The Los Angeles–based artist pushes the boundaries of visual technology to make his photography, video, and experimental media. He captures scenes that convey the decline and destruction of our natural environments. In Glacial Optics, which runs through March 17, Duke shows large-scale images from the Arctic, which he took through a lens made with glacier ice from the region.

Vladem Contemporary

“Spectacle” is the theme that drives the second iteration of Off-Center: New Mexico Art, 1970–2000, which makes its debut at the anniversary party for the Vladem Contemporary, in Santa Fe. For the exhibition, the museum selected works with an element of spectacle, which can make viewers stop, look, and maybe even gasp. The celebration is open to the public Friday from 7 to 9 p.m. The dress code is atomic punk, and the three punkiest and most atomic attendees will receive a best dressed award. Enjoy food from Jesushi Santa Fe and beverages from As Above So Below.

Read more: For more things to do, check out our online calendar of events.