Child's play: Santa Fe Fiesta de los Niños offers youth activities with a historic flair

See New Mexico’s vibrant past through a child’s eyes during the Santa Fe Fiesta de los Niños.

The 21st annual event takes place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, July 20, and Sunday, July 21, at El Rancho de las Golondrinas, 334 Los Pinos Road in Santa Fe.

“This is a chance for us to provide a lot of children and family focused hands-on activities,” said Daniel Goodman, museum director at El Rancho de Las Golondrinas. “That’s why this whole thing, this particular festival, started. There’s a lot of things that are going on that they can do.”

Child's play: Santa Fe Fiesta de los Niños offers youth activities with a historic flair

On Saturday, the Rio Grande Mule & Donkey Association will be part of the event. Attendees will have the opportunity to see the animals with historic tack and packing. Hawks Aloft will be onsite with its winged friends to educate eventgoers about the animals both days of the fiesta.

“Hawks Aloft will teach kids about raptors in our education center,” Goodman said. “They bring owls, they bring a vulture and stuff like that.”

Also part of the event will be performances by Niños de Santa Fe Youth Dancers from 11 a.m. to noon on the stage, The New Mexican Marimba Band from noon to 2 p.m. in the food service area and Compañia Mina Fajardo & Chuscales Flamenco from 2 to 3 p.m. on the stage.

“(We will have a) vendor who specifically sells coloring books and a face painter and balloon twisting and all that kind of stuff,” Goodman said. “We also have things like a soap maker, so kids can come learn how to make soap. We have Clyde the buffalo. He’s famous from all the movies that he’s been in, so they’ll get a chance to see him. And we have the storytellers that are out here as well.”

Children also will have the opportunity to make a mini adobe casita with adobe bricks they make themselves. Other activities include rope making, wool dyeing with natural materials, tin stamping, tortilla making and mask making.

Children will also be able to take part in an archeological excavation.

“We’re going to have our ‘Can You Dig It’ program on Sunday,” Goodman said. “That is a kids’ archeology activity where they learn about archeology, how to do an excavation, and they get to excavate for what we call ‘Artifakes.’ We really try to pull out the stops on the hands-on, interactive, kid, family-friendly activities.”