Other Events During Balloon Fiesta 2011
Events occurring during the 2012 Balloon Fiesta will be added soon. Plan your trip to Albuquerque during the 2011 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Below is a list of other events happening in the area during the fiesta. Events will be updated as information becomes available, so please check back or visit our calendar of events at www.itsatrip.org/events.
Special Events
Lighter Than Air Fair (LTAF): October 1-9, 2011; FREE every day of Fiesta from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. (Balloon Museum admission extra.). Guests can enjoy activities located within walking distance or a short shuttle ride from the Balloon Fiesta Park. LTAF will feature New Mexican artists, authors, non-profit organizations and fine businesses. Visitors of all ages will be able to enjoy food, music, arts and crafts, exhibits, contests and many more activities as they explore the LTAF.
First Friday Artscrawl: September 30, 2011; ABQ's free First Friday gallery tour. Gallery openings, artist receptions, demonstrations and more.
Rio Grande Arts & Crafts Festival-Balloon Fiesta Show: October 1-2, 7-9, 2011; This highly-ranked, juried show features the work of hundreds of the nation’s most outstanding artists and craftspeople. Visitors can shop and purchase directly from the artists, and also enjoy the food court, complete with wine sampling. There are also artists’ demonstrations, children’s activities and a variety of entertainment, making it a fun event for the entire family. 
KayDee Balloon Fiesta Arts & Crafts Show: October 1-2, 2011; Featuring local artists and craftsmen that create beautiful handmade items. Our show features fiber art, paintings, photography, glass art, jewelry, wood working and so much more. The show is free to the public. The event is juried to ensure high quality items and a wide variety of textiles.
ECHO Carving Series Championship: October 1-3, 2011; Bring the kids and come watch eight best-in-class wood carvers create astoundingly beautiful and detailed sculptures while competing for cash and prizes.
ABQ Trolley Glow: October 1-2 & October 6-8, 2011; This all-inclusive, interactive tour includes round-trip transportation (on a completely-custom, uniquely-Albuquerque, open-air Trolley) from Downtown ABQ to Balloon Fiesta Park, a live Burqueño guide, ABQ trivia with great giveaways from local businesses, access to the Balloon Fiesta's exclusive Chaser's Club, general admission to Balloon Fiesta and exclusive transportation route with limited traffic
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Harvest Festival: October 8 & 9, 2011; Come to the Botanic Garden's Heritage Farm for the seventh annual Harvest Festival. Sample the smells, sounds and tastes of the fall harvest!
Albuquerque Postcard & Paper Show: October 8-9, 2011; Over 20 dealers bringing thousands of antique, vintage, and modern collectible postcards featuring views of New Mexico, the U.S.A., and foreign countries as well as numerous topical categories such as animals, artist signed, comic/humor, fairs & expos, military, transportation, pretty ladies, sports, and many more.
Maize Maze, Community Farm: September through October; A family-oriented, affordable, outdoor activity that allows you to wander in a field of corn as you make your way through a maze.
Downtown Grower's Market & Festival: Every Saturday through October; Features 100% locally grown New Mexico produce.
ABQ Trolley Best of ABQ city tour: Every Tuesday through Sunday through October; Enjoy the best of Albuquerque on a 66-minute tour from a completely-custom, uniquely-Albuquerque, open-air trolley.
Sculpture Garden & Old Town Walking Tours: Tuesday through Saturday (Sculpture garden), Tuesday through Sunday (Old Town), through November; Immerse yourself in tours of sculpture gardens and walking tours of historic Old Town.
EXPO New Mexico Flea Market: Every Saturday and Sunday throughout the year; Featuring hundreds of vendors with tens of thousands of unique and one-of-a-kind items to choose from.
Ghost Tour of Old Town: Nightly at 8pm, reservations required; Albuquerque Legends, folklore, ghost stories and history come to life as you depart on an intriguing excursion through 300 years of haunted history.
Museum Exhibits
Anderson - Abruzzo International Balloon Museum:
A Century of High Flying: Science, Space and Sport: Tuesday through Sunday through December 2011; Some artifacts included in the exhibit are instruments from the Cold War reconnaissance project Moby Dick in which balloons were used to take high altitude photographs over Soviet sites. There will also be an original photo of the Graf Zeppelin flying over Columbus, New Mexico while completing its first round-the-world flight. The role of balloons in remote sensing and astronomical research in New Mexico will also be part of the exhibit.
New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science:
First Friday Fractals: September 30, 2011; The Fractal Foundation and the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science invite you to a live fractal show in the Planetarium. Suitable for all ages, the show features both the science and the art of fractals, and includes dramatic animated footage of ultradeep fractal zooms, together with original, locally-produced music.
Dawn of the Dinosaurs: New Mexico’s Triassic: Permanent Exhibition; The only Triassic Exhibit Hall in North America is dedicated to the plants and animals of the Triassic Period in New Mexico and the world.
National Hispanic Cultural Center: 
This exhibit
features the work of three artists, Robb Rael, Jocelyn Lorena Salaz and Vicente Telles. Although each artist moves tradition into transition in unique ways, each work maintains a feeling of home, a trace of the New Mexican aesthetic, and a piece of the place where they are from.
¡FABULOSO! Figures in Clay: Tuesday through Sunday through Summer 2012
Figures in clay from the Van Deren and Joan Coke Collection. These ceramic artists infuse the simplest of materials––mud––with creative force. They call forth forms of animals from the natural world as well as recreating creatures from the dream world such as materials (sirenas) and guardian spirits (naguales).
The Albuquerque Museum of Art and History:
Faces From Our Past Exhibition: Tuesday through Sunday through January 2012; This exhibition features prints made from a collection of glass plate negatives by the Cobb family of photographers that was recently acquired by the Museum.
Hispanic Traditional Arts of New Mexico: Tuesday through Sunday through January 2012; This exhibition, celebrating masterworks and little known gems from the permanent collection of The Albuquerque Museum, will provide a broad reaching exploration of the historical development and contemporary new directions in Hispanic traditional art.
Albuquerque Celebrates 2012: Tuesday through Sunday through January 2012; Part of The Albuquerque Museum's "Celebrating the New Mexico Centennial" programming, this exhibition relates some of the major events taking place in Albuquerque around the time New Mexico became a state, including the 1908 National Irrigation Conference, the first aeroplane flights at the Territorial Fairgrounds, presidential visits to Albuquerque, and the ratification of the New Mexico State Constitution at the Alvarado Hotel. The exhibition will also feature examples of New Mexico's official emblems including the state cookie (biscochito), state neckwear (bolo tie) and state symbol (Zia sun symbol).
Indian Pueblo Cultural Center:
Weekends at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center: Every weekend through October 24, 2011; Come visit the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center to bake bread, make art and enjoy Native American dancing, art demos on weekends throughout the year.
Indian Dances & Artist Demonstrations: Saturdays and Sundays through 2011; Traditional Indian dances and artist demonstrations. Schedule varies by season.