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Events

La Viña — April Jazz Festival and October Wine Festival

by CharlieMcDonald on January 11, 2003 · 0 comments

in Events

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La Viña Sign

If God forbade drinking
would He have made wine so good?
— Armand Cardinal Richelieu

What hath Bacchus wrought? Drive down to 4201 Highway 28 at La Union, New Mexico and you’ll find out. Twice a year vintners Ken and Denise Stark stage their festivals at La Viña Winery – the April Jazz Festival and the October Wine Festival. Both times of year are delightfully sunny and warm in Southern New Mexico.

Locals and tourists alike eagerly await these yearly fêtes champêtres. The winery is just a short jaunt from El Paso or Las Cruces, where most of the revelers reside, but folks come from as far away as Florida and Ohio, delighted to be in the midst of southwestern merrymaking, oohing and aahing about the friendliness and ambience at the Wine Festival. I met Frank and Barbara Brooks, retirees from Ohio now transplanted in Las Cruces, who said, “This is the perfect place to retire, and this festival is just one more appealing thing about it.” Dallas fans sometimes even miss their beloved Cowboys to attend the festival. Believe me, it takes something momentous to drag them away from their TV’s.

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Celebrating Leap Year Bithdays at the Leap Year Capital of the World — Anthony, New Mexico/Texas USA

by burchd on January 11, 2003 · 0 comments

in Events

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Park in Anthony Photo courtesty Anthony Chamber of Commerce.
Park in Anthony

Anyone who was born on February 29 must definitely feel cheated out of having a regular birthday party on their special day. One person, living in the two-state city of Anthony, NM/TX, did something about it. And in doing so brought a special tourist attraction to her home town.

In 1988, Mary Ann Brown, a 1932 Leap Year Baby, formed the Worldwide Leap Year Birthday Club. She took her idea to the Anthony Chamber of Commerce and proposed her city claim the title “Leap Year Capital of the World.” The Chamber followed through and sponsored a festival to celebrate this unusual date. The then-Governors Garrey Carruthers, New Mexico, and William B. Clemens, Texas, joined in proclaiming that title for Anthony. Senator Pete Domenici of New Mexico read it into the Congressional Record on October 14, 1988.

The length of the festival depends on what day of the week February 29 falls and the goal is to have the largest number of Leap Year birthday celebrants ever gathered in one place.

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Come All Ye Tramps and Hawkers

by CharlieMcDonald January 10, 2003 Events

Technorati Tags: event,Las Cruces

Prig: he haunts wakes, fairs and bear-baitings.
— The Winter’s Tale, IV,3,109
You’ll not find prigs at the annual Las Cruces Renaissance Craftfaire this November, but you’ll find plenty of good, clean fun.
Perhaps a few jugglers, a few mimes, a few armored knights engaged in combat, surely a few jesters. But no prigs. You’ll [...]

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