New Mexico has major events throughout the year, from hot-air balloons and Native art markets to state fairs, chile festivals, and UFO parades.

The list below is ranked loosely by a combination of attendance, statewide importance, national recognition, and how much I think an event is worth planning a trip around. Some draw hundreds of thousands of people, while others make the list because they are distinctly New Mexican.

1. Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta

• Where: Albuquerque
• When: October

The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is easily the largest and most famous event in New Mexico.

For nine days each October, the largest hot-air balloon festival in the world fills the sky over Albuquerque with hundreds of hot-air balloons. The main attractions are the morning mass ascensions, special-shape balloons, evening balloon glows, and the unusual experience of being able to walk directly among so many balloons as they prepare to launch.

The 2025 Balloon Fiesta recorded roughly 852,000 guest visits, making it by far the largest tourism event in the state. If you are going to plan a New Mexico trip around one event, this is the obvious choice. It also takes place in the fall, which is one of the best times to visit New Mexico.

2. Burning of Zozobra

• Where: Santa Fe
• When: Late August / early September

The Burning of Zozobra may be the most distinctly New Mexican event on the list.

Each year, tens of thousands of people gather at Fort Marcy Park in Santa Fe to watch a giant marionette known as Old Man Gloom go up in flames. Before the event, people submit their worries, regrets, and other “glooms,” which are placed inside the figure and symbolically burned with him. The event has drawn crowds approaching 64,000 people. It is loud, strange, theatrical, and unlike anything else in the country.

3. New Mexico State Fair

• Where: Albuquerque
• When: September

The New Mexico State Fair is the state’s traditional big fair, bringing together carnival rides, livestock competitions, rodeo, concerts, food, agricultural exhibits, art, and plenty of New Mexico-specific weirdness.

Held at Expo New Mexico in Albuquerque, the fair attracts more than 500,000 people in a typical year. It is less of a destination event than Balloon Fiesta, but it is one of the best places to see a broad cross-section of New Mexico in one place.

4. Southern New Mexico State Fair

• Where: Las Cruces
• When: Fall

The Southern New Mexico State Fair, held in Las Cruces, is one of the biggest annual events in southern New Mexico and serves as the region’s counterpart to the State Fair in Albuquerque.

The fair combines carnival rides, livestock competitions, rodeo, concerts, food, and agricultural exhibits, with a stronger focus on farming and ranching than the larger State Fair in Albuquerque. For southern New Mexico, this is the big traditional county-fair-style event of the year.

5. Santa Fe Indian Market

• Where: Santa Fe
• When: August

The Santa Fe Indian Market takes over the streets surrounding the Santa Fe Plaza each August and is one of the most important Native American art events in the world.

More than 1,000 Native artists participate, selling jewelry, pottery, paintings, textiles, sculpture, and other work. The weekend also includes performances, fashion events, demonstrations, and food. It is estimated that the market attracts around 100,000 visitors each year. Even if you are not an art collector, it is one of the best weekends of the year to experience Santa Fe.

6. Hatch Chile Festival

• Where: Hatch
• When: Labor Day weekend

Hatch normally has fewer than 2,000 residents. Then chile season arrives.

The Hatch Chile Festival brings roughly 30,000 visitors to the small agricultural village for a weekend devoted to New Mexico’s most famous crop. There is chile roasting, food vendors, music, local agriculture, and seemingly every imaginable product that can have green chile added to it.

7. Roswell UFO Festival

• Where: Roswell
• When: Early July

Roswell fully embraces its alien reputation and this event is a celebration of all things extraterrestrial.

The Roswell UFO Festival fills downtown with alien costumes, lectures, live entertainment, vendors, UFO-themed attractions, costume contests, and an impressive concentration of inflatable extraterrestrials. Thousands of visitors descend on Roswell each summer for what has become a signature annual event in southeastern New Mexico.

8. Great American Duck Race

• Where: Deming
• When: August

The Great American Duck Race is exactly what it sounds like: a multi-day festival built around racing ducks.

Every August, Deming hosts hundreds of duck races alongside many other fair-like events, including the Tournament of Ducks Parade, Great American Tortilla Toss, Outhouse Race, horseshoe tournament, carnival, and hot-air balloon rally. The event has been held for more than four decades and draws visitors from across New Mexico and neighboring states. It is ridiculous in exactly the right way and has become Deming’s signature tradition.

9. Pie Town Pie Festival

• Where: Pie Town
• When: Summer

Pie Town is a tiny community whose unusual name comes from the pies once sold to travelers passing through town. Naturally, it has a pie festival.

The Pie Town Pie Festival celebrates that history with pie-baking competitions, pie-eating contests, music, vendors, and plenty of homemade pie. It is much smaller than most of the events higher on this list, but that is part of the appeal. It is a quirky small-town festival that you won’t find anywhere else.

10. International Folk Art Market

• Where: Santa Fe
• When: July

The International Folk Art Market brings artists and craftspeople from around the world to Santa Fe.

Unlike many New Mexico festivals, this one is international rather than specifically Southwestern. Artists sell traditional textiles, jewelry, pottery, clothing, sculpture, and other handmade work representing cultures from dozens of countries. Recent markets have drawn around 20,000 visitors and more than 150 participating artists and cooperatives making this one of the largest folk art markets in the world.

Conclusion

New Mexico has plenty going on between these big annual events too. If you’re planning a trip, check out the best things to do in New Mexico, explore places worth visiting around the state, or start putting everything together with the New Mexico trip planner!