September in Santa Fe is a magical time. The smell of green chile roasting fills the crisp mountain air, while the aspens turn golden and shimmer with the breeze. Temperatures begin to drop, but the autumn event season really begins to heat up! Here are several of The City Different's can't-miss September events.
101st Annual Burning of Zozobra
August 29, 2025
We know this is an August event, but we cannot say enough about the 101st Burning of Zozobra, a unique cultural event that takes place the Friday of Labor Day weekend at the green and lush Fort Marcy Park, just steps from downtown Santa Fe. The wailing, mythical creation is the legacy of local artist Will Shuster, who could likely not have imagined that the original 6-foot effigy he burned in his backyard in 1924 would become a 50-foot marionette and an annual source of community release and rallying.
Filled with paper "glooms"—expressed regrets and fears, divorce papers, speeding tickets, photos—by young people and adults alike, Zozobra is unable to cast a spell of darkness over Santa Fe for long. You watch and groove from a spot on the Fort Marcy Park grass as he burns in a musical, ritualistic, orchestrated ceremony, and with him, all woes—until at least the following year! Read more via our blog.
The Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe has managed the pageantry since 1964, and the proceeds support area children's programs. More information, including tickets, merchandise, how and where to submit your gloom at Burn Zozobra.
313th Fiesta de Santa Fe
August 30–September 7, 2025
If there’s one tradition that captures the spirit of Santa Fe, it’s the annual celebration, Fiesta de Santa Fe. This event is the longest continuously running celebration in the US! With the Mariachi Extravaganza, the Burning of Zozobra, concerts, culturally rich music performances and food booths, beloved and time-honored parades—Desfile de Los Niños (aka, The Pet Parade) and Desfile de la Gente (aka Historical/Hysterical Parade)—as well as arts and crafts markets, and more, Fiesta de Santa Fe embraces The City Different's complex past and present and is a feast for all of the senses.
2nd Annual Canyon Road Summer Walk
September 3, 2025
image: bokeh.photography_
The Canyon Road Summer Walk is back for a second year! The first Wednesdays of each glorious summer month, join the community for an engaging amble, complete with food, music, arts & crafts, to celebrate summer and the rich artistic and cultural heritage of Santa Fe's historic Canyon Road.
19th Annual New Mexico Jazz Festival
September 4–28, 2025
A robust offering of nearly 50 major touring artists, including NEA Jazz Masters and respected New Mexico-based jazz, international, rhythm & blues, and Latin music practitioners promise to make the 19th Annual New Mexico Jazz Festival another exciting destination event. A collaboration between two of the most respected non-profit jazz presenters in New Mexico, Outpost Performance Space and the Lensic Performing Arts Center, the Festival features concerts and events in Albuquerque and Santa Fe over a three-week period and includes free concerts. Don't miss your opportunity to jazz out!
Green Chile Cheeseburger Smackdown
September 6, 2025
It's the battle of the burgers as the chef/restaurant finalists go compete to see who will win this year's best green chile cheeseburger title. Your host is the Santa Fe Brewing Company, selling you cool suds to go with your burger taste test. Get your tix EARLY and/or get those tastebuds excited by enjoying great burgers from 2024 Santa Fe finalists: Alkemē, Timetravelers Gastro Pub, Monkey’s Food Truck, Tumbleroot Brewery & Distillery, and What THE truck. Who will reign supreme and win the Green Chile Cheeseburger Smackdown title in 2025?
Fall Activities at Ski Santa Fe
September 13–October 12, 2025
The new Santa Fe Express High-Speed Quad lift at Ski Santa Fe will give enthusiasts a thrill in celebration of one of the prettiest times of the year. Take a ride to the top of Upper Broadway, marveling at the golden aspens along the way. Then, play some disc golf, enjoy live music, a car show, pet adoption event, and the beer garden! Season passes for sale!
The Santa Fe Symphony 42nd Season Opener
September 14, 2025
The Santa Fe Symphony opens their 42nd season at the Lensic Performing Arts Center. This magnificent event showcases the talent of Alexi Kenney, playing Sibelius' Violin Concerto in D minor, op.47 and Brahms' Symphony No. 1 in C minor, op.68, backed by the Symphony Orchestra. The New York Times writes, "He made it seem . . . as if this were the only possible way to play the music.” For more information, visit The Santa Fe Symphony.
17th Annual Santa Fe Renaissance Faire
September 13 & 14, 2025
Costume up and immerse yourself in a majestic journey back in time at the utterly transformed El Rancho de las Golondrinas. Travel with the fairies to their enchanted village, cheer on the knights of the Order of Epona, play in the kids' game area, try delicious era food and drink, including turkey legs, all things made with apple, mead, and ale, dance to the stylings of local musicians, giggle in awe at the acrobatic magic of the Clan Tynker troupe, and buy unique arts and crafts at New Mexico’s premier Renaissance Faire.
34th Annual Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta
September 24–28, 2025
The illustrious Fiesta, in its 34th year, ranked #9 in USA TODAY's 10Best Readers’ Choice awards for Best Wine Festival. Get your tickets to find out why! Ninety worldwide wineries partner with 60 of The City Different's best restaurants in a weeklong celebration of food and wine, featuring cooking demos, seminars, winery luncheons and dinners, a gravel bike ride and golf tournament, and more. Don't miss the Grand Tasting on the grassy lawn of Magers Field Park, just steps from downtown, where you'll sample both exquisite cuisine from participating restaurants and esteemed vintages from worldwide wineries. Another crowd-pleasing event is Chile Friday, a tasty tribute to New Mexico's signature heat in the form of delicious bites from nearly 40 culinary establishments paired with refreshing local craft beers and ciders and Don Fulano, Don Julio, Herradura, and Patrón margaritas.
Concerts at the Santa Fe Opera
Throughout September 2025
Garrison Keillor
The Santa Fe Opera just keeps a-rocking through September—not with operatic superstars, but with some of the most interesting musicians of this time, including a sold-out Jon Batiste and The Mavericks, but you can yukk it up on September 7 with Garrison Keillor and his 50th anniversary of A Prairie Home Companion tour. There's not a bad seat in the architecturally spectacular open-air amphitheater, so get your tickets now to one of these popular performances, made even more special by the sweetness of an autumn evening.
Art Tours & Markets
Throughout September 2025
Image courtesy of Eldorado Studio Tour
If you know one thing about Santa Fe, it's that the art never stops, which is a big reason why The City Different is recognized internationally as a top art market in the United States and celebrating its 20th anniversary as a UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, Cultural Organization) Crafts and Folk Art city, “driving innovation, investment, and prosperity in a range of arts and creativity.”
Not only can you purchase pieces from world-renowned artists, but you can mingle with the aspiring ones from Northern New Mexico. Be sure to check out the Northern New Mexico Fine Arts and Crafts Guild (September 27 & 28) in the Plaza-adjacent Cathedral Park and the Santa Fe Society of Artists (all Saturdays & Sundays), multiple tents inhabiting a convenient parking lot off of the Plaza and in the Railyard. Or go afield and take yourself on a studio tour, where you can be with artists in the very spaces where they create their works! You'll fall in love with the journey, the destination, and the event at the Taos Studio Tour (Labor Day Weekend), the 28th Annual High Road Artisans Studio Tour (September 20 & 21; 27 & 28), as well as the Turquoise Trail Studio Tour (September 20 & 21; 27 & 28) and the 33rd Annual Eldorado Studio Tour (September 20 & 21).
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