Wind up your Memorial Day weekend with a day of free, family fun, courtesy of the New Mexico History Museum. Events below are SUBJECT TO CHANGE -- but guaranteed to entertain. Here's the current schedule:
10am-5pm: Free admission to the History Museum and its exhibits.
10am: Interfaith service at St. Francis Cathedral.
11am: Procession from the Cathedral to the Museum with Los Caballeros, the Santa Fe Fiesta Council, representatives of Native American groups and New Mexico Historical societies, and others.
11:30am: Lion Dancers from the Chinese American Citizens Alliance of New Mexico perform outside the Museum. (Feed the lion dollar bills for good luck!).
12-5pm: Live music and dance on the Santa Fe Plaza from various periods and cultures of New Mexico, including Andrew Tomas on Native American flute; Barbershop Sounds; Santa Fe Community Band; National Dance Institute; Not-So-Andrews Sisters; Alamogordo Ballet Folklorica Dancers; Call of the Drums.
Throughout the Plaza, characters from the past, dressed in the costumes of their time, reappear, ready to tell their stories, answer questions and pose for pictures.
12-4pm: The Santa Fe Vintage Car Club roars into the Plaza to display shining examples of the vehicles that once carried Americans across the Southwest.
1-2:30pm: Members of Sociedad Folklorica join members of New Mexico's tribes and pueblos to model historical clothing, complementing the Museum's premiere rotating exhibition, "Fashioning New Mexico." Come to the Museum's upstairs Gathering Space to enjoy the show.
1-4 pm: The Route 66 Ice Cream Parlor sets up shop in the Palace Courtyard, fofering free scoops served by members of Kenpo 5.0 Team Silva. Live music and historical photo boards to pose yourself into (bring a camera!).
Team Silva -- professional cage-fighter Paul Silva and his father/mentor/cornerman Gilbert H. Silva -- along with fighting colleagues Paul Tapia, Tony Potter, Ricky Salas and Leroy Ortega, are taking off the gloves and picking up the scoops as part of their shared goal with the Museum to promote family, values, self-realization and nurturing for the next generation.
2:30-4 pm: Telling New Mexico, the book accompanying the Museum's core exhibition, will be unveiled at a book signing and panel discussion among authors who contributed to the collection of historical essays. Enjoy your first event in the Museum's brand-new auditorium and get a copy of what's sure to become a must-have historical resource.
