Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
A dancer with Odd-Lab performs with fire during the 2017 Fired Up festival in downtown Tucumcari. Odd-Lab returns this year for the eighth edition Saturday of Fired Up.
The number of features at Fired Up grows each year. Thanks to social media and with fingers crossed for good weather, Tucumcari MainStreet’s executive director thinks Saturday’s eighth edition of the free festival also can grow past the 4,000 mark in attendance.
Last year’s Fired Up at the historic railroad depot plaza at Second and Main streets in Tucumcari drew almost 3,400 people. Tucumcari MainStreet executive director Gail Houser said he’s hopeful a social-media campaign in the Albuquerque and Amarillo markets will boost attendance even more than usual.
“We would not be surprised if we exceed 4,000,” Houser said, adding he stations counters at the entrances to get accurate crowd counts.
It’s not just out-of-towners who attend Fired Up, either.
“Fired Up is all about bringing the community together, seeing your neighbors, seeing your family, meeting new friends and having the opportunity to enjoy the weather and the area around here,” he said.
Among the new features for Fired Up is a piñata festival for children and adults. Houser said the festival is bringing back a dunk tank, and the so-called Kids Corner has expanded 50 percent.
The festival opens at 10 a.m. Friday and Saturday with a quilt show, which draws about 80 entrants, and merchant sidewalk sales in the downtown area.
The car and motorcycle show, which begins at 1 p.m. Saturday, will take up much of the Main Street block near the plaza.
Fired Up really gets rolling at 2 p.m. Saturday with these events:
• Performance by the Tucumcari Elementary Nyoka Marimba Band
• The Prince Tocum and Princess Kari contest for 4- and 5-year-olds
• Molten metal pour by the Mesalands Community College Foundry & Studio Arts
• Glass-blowing demonstrations by Prairie Dog Glass of Santa Fe
• Performances on two stages by Bakersfield Twang, a Tucumcari-based country and tejano band, and Trio Jalisciense, a mariachi group out of Albuquerque
• 4-H rocket building, which gives dozens of children an opportunity to build a compressed-air rocket
• At least six food vendors in the food-court area
• The perennially popular live-fire dance performance by Odd-Lab, based out of Las Cruces and El Paso
The festival ends after the 9 p.m. Saturday fireworks display, which Houser said will last 15 to 20 minutes.
One activity planned for Fired Up but canceled last week due to logistical reasons was the chili cookoff, which was supposed to return after several years of hiatus. Houser said confusion about whether the cookoff would run afoul of state health regulations forced the cancellation.
“We’ll get out ducks in a row and bring it back next year,” he said.
One activity that no longer is part of Fired Up but has a strong association with it is the annual Wheels on Fire 100 bicycle race, which begins at 8 a.m. Saturday at Tucumcari Convention Center and goes through San Jon, Grady and Ragland in Quay County. Competitors also can enter in 50-mile, 25-mile and 100-kilometer races.
Wheels on Fire’s split with Fired Up was amicable, Houser said.
“We endorse each other,” he said. “We’re promoting him, and he’s promoting us.”
