Festival & Artisan Market Tours

A Time to Gather

Spanish Market · INTERNATIONAL FOLK ART MARKET · Indian Market · ABQ INTERNATIONAL BALLOON FIESTA

Historically, New Mexico’s festivals have been a place for artisans, farmers and adventurers
to gather and exchange goods, ideas, and stories.

In the mid 1830s New Mexico began to function as a trading hub between the United States, Mexico, and California. Merchants migrated from the Great Plains to Santa Fe, to meet up with other artisans and farmers.

Later Indian Market was organized as part of the Fiesta de Santa Fe sponsored by the Museum of New Mexico as a way to preserve the native arts and traditions that were in danger of extinction. In 1936, the New Mexico Association on Indian Affairs took over the event.

Seasonal festivals continued to pop up through the Land of Enchantment. In 1972, a small gathering of 13 balloons participated in the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Today the event has grown to become the largest balloon festival in the world. Your perspective will shift as you wonder at the “Mass Ascension” at dawn or get lost in the labyrinth of luminescent orbs at “Night Glow.”