McDonald: State's festivals best part of summer

All around New Mexico, we love our festivals. I suppose that’s true all over the world, but here in the Land of Enchantment, we have more than our share of unique events.

link Tom McDonald

And summertime is the season a whole lot of them come out of the woodwork.

The space I have would do no justice to the totality of the hometown festivals across New Mexico — that’s better found at the state Tourism Department’s website — so, instead, let’s take a look at what spurs communities to put their time, effort and money into their own events.

I’ve come up with three big motivators — money, identity and just for the show.

Money: Festivals aren’t just for fun, they also bring in big bucks. Most festivals seek to do more than simply give the locals something to do. They’re meant to bring in visitors from outside the area. Tourism is big business, bringing in about $7 billion a year for New Mexico.

Some local events are bigger than the Christmas season for supporting local businesses. I don’t know how much money the Lea County Fair generates, but organizers bring in some big-name entertainment each year, so it must be hefty — and that’s bound to give a boost to the local economy.

Identity: Communities often tie their unique identities into their festivals. Roswell has its UFO festival in July, along with a sci-fi film fest. And Hatch is preparing to put on its annual chile festival during harvest time in early September as a way to celebrate its title as the “chile capital of the world.”

Show: Through our festivals and other community events, communities show their loves and allegiances. Sometimes it’s to show off the creativity of local artists, as the Carrizozo area is doing with its Tularosa Basin Gallery of Photography, or as Mountainair does with its Sunflower Festival. Or, maybe it’s just to show some appreciation, like Old Timers Day in Estancia.

Then there are places like the Taos area, which shows off one element of its community or another just about every weekend, from its summertime fiesta to the Solar Music Fest in July.

Santa Rosa is showing off one of its more abundant natural features, water, in Park Lake. Not too long ago, this town bought a Wibit, an inflatable island of water activities. I drove by recently to see it for myself and left convinced that it’ll be a big draw this summer. During the town’s upcoming Independence Day celebration — which includes a lot more than the new Wibit — I’ll bet it will be packed.

So get out and have some fun. After all, that’s the best part of summer.

Tom McDonald is editor of the New Mexico Community News Exchange. Contact him at:

tmcdonald@

gazettemediaservices.com