5 Best Performing Arts Venues in Santa Fe, New Mexico

Held the second full weekend in July, this market sprawls across Museum Hill parking lots and plazas as the world's largest folk art market. More than 150 master folk artists from every corner of the planet come together to sell their work amid a festive array of huge tents, colorful banners, music, food, and delighted crowds. The feeling of fellowship and celebration here enhances the satisfaction of buying wonderful folk art—it's truly an experience you won't have anywhere else in the world. If you aren't in town during IFAM weekend, the nonprofit has a showroom/store open to the public in its headquarters near the capital at 620 Cerrillos Road.

Author and Santa Fe resident George R. R. Martin, of Game of Thrones fame, restored this intimate, funky Railyard District art-movie house into a busy neighborhood favorite. The single-screen theater is a great place to catch first-run films, indie flicks, cult classics, and traveling selections from international film festivals. The lobby has a small bar and coffee shop to complete the indie vibe. Next door, Martin also operates Beastly Books which focuses, of course, on science fiction and fantasy.

Santa Fe's vintage Downtown movie house has been fully restored and converted into the 850-seat Lensic Performing Arts Center. The grand 1931 building, with Moorish and Spanish Renaissance influences, hosts the Santa Fe Symphony, theater, classic films, lectures and readings, noted world, pop, and jazz musicians, and many other prominent events. The Lensic 360 program also presents music festivals and large-scale concerts in other locations throughout the city.

Begun in 2006 and now widely acclaimed, this nearly monthlong festival presents numerous concerts in both Santa Fe and Albuquerque from mid-July through early August. Recent performers have included Stanley Clarke, the Yellowjackets, Dianne Reeves, and Allen Toussaint.

This outstanding festival runs mid-July through late August, with performances nearly every night at the art-filled St. Francis Auditorium, or, occasionally, the Lensic Performing Arts Center. There are also free youth-oriented concerts given on several summer mornings.