State Fair Rides for Every Thrill Level
The Grand Carousel is the centerpiece of the midway, with 60 colorful horses in rows of four, bobbing up and down to the calliope sounds that fill the air. “It’s the largest portable one they make,”…
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Tag: New Mexico State Fair
Faces of the Fair: Rodeo Queen Kaitlyn Maria
K AITLYN MARIA TRAINED with her horse for just six months—yet still made history. The 20-year-old Belén electrician became one of the first Navajo women crowned New Mexico State Fair Rodeo Queen by…
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State Fair Rodeo FAQs
WHO ARE THE COWBOYS? “We get some of the top-ranked cowboys in the world,” he says. “One of the big reasons is, not only just the money that we offer here, but we’re one of the final stops before the…
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The State Fair Serves Up Big Flavor
REX THOMPSON knows how to wow the crowds. Sure, the cotton candy, funnel cakes, and fries are fair-food essentials, but the owner of Rex’s Hamburgers, in Albuquerque, understands that the midway is…
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Tips to Score Big at the NM State Fair
AH, THE MIDWAY: A magical land where dreams are inflated to the size of a giant plush banana—and crushed in three tosses or less. But carnival pro Paul Smith, who has worked fairs for more than half a…
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Five Things to Do This Weekend
1 Listen to music in the mountains. Folk songs, Americana ballads, country melodies, and bluegrass tunes fill the forest in Kingston during Pickamania, the annual three-day music festival at the…
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Datebook: September 2024
A LONG WINDING MOUNTAIN ROADS, next to flowing acequias, and on top of little hills, artist studios blossom like wildflowers in the Land of Enchantment. September might be the best time of the year to…
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Five Things to Do This Weekend
1 Saddle up to the state fair. The New Mexico State Fair bursts out of the gates like a rodeo bull this weekend with activities, rides, concerts, delicious eats, and cute animals. Gates are open on…
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Datebook: September 2023
WHAT STARTED AS A BACKYARD HANGOUT in the 1980s has evolved into a three-day music festival among Kingston’s towering ponderosa pines. Featuring bluegrass, Americana, and folk, this year’s Pickamania…
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