It's a hit

Not bad for just five weeks of planning.

A steady stream of people Saturday checked out the festivities of the Pinata Fiesta in the Tucumcari Convention Center parking lot despite a broiling sun and temperatures that reached 97 degrees.

That night, more than 300 people bought tickets to dance to the music of Str8 Shot and Cuarenta Y Cinco in the center's air-conditioned main ballroom.

The Pinata Fiesta served as a revival of the city's long-defunct Pinata Festival and a successor of the New Mexico Music Showcase, which went dormant for two years during the COVID-19 pandemic. Scott Crotzer, executive director of the Tucumcari/Quay County Chamber of Commerce, said he was grateful to pull off Saturday's festival despite having just over a month to organize it after being hired as the city's events planner.

"Planning was ... interesting," Crotzer said Monday, laughing. "This was my career before, so thank goodness I kinda knew what I was doing. Thank goodness I also had the help of the New Mexico Music Showcase guys, especially Jerry Lopez. Even some of their volunteers came and helped, and I was appreciative of that.

"If we didn't already have the talent booked, there literally would have been no way. All of these acts were good; they all could have had other commitments. They stayed with us even though we had no contracts or anything until the last minute."

Crotzer also praised city employees who provided infrastructure support, plus the assistance of innumerable residents.

"I can't even name everyone because people were coming off the street and just helping," he said.

The festival kicked off Saturday morning with a 35-unit parade, led by a float containing several members of Mariachi Calor playing music as they rolled down Route 66.

After that, the convention center consistently saw a spillover of parked vehicles on the surrounding lots and streets.

"The parade was a success in drawing all our visitors down at once," Crotzer said, who estimated daytime festivities consistently drew at least 100 people.

One of the volunteers, Bobby Hockaday, said several food vendors ran out of items because of brisk sales.

"The food vendors consistently stayed busy, even through the hot times. I think, overall, they were really, really happy and glad to have been there," Crotzer said.

In addition to the food and music, a strong draw during the day was the Runyan Ranches petting zoo, stationed in the shade of pine trees on the convention center's west side. In addition to the usual farm animals of goats, calves and hogs, the petting zoo featured a camel, a zebra, llamas and a capybara.

Crotzer said he was "surprised" by the variety of animals that Runyan brought.

The pinata smash event had one unforeseen problem - the pinatas were built too well. They remained intact more than a dozen hard smashes by children, who managed to break open just 10 to unleash their candy and toys during nearly a two-hour period. The remaining 20 were given away.

Crotzer said the supplier stapled and taped together the pinatas.

"Then when we did the regular decorations over the top, it made them like tanks," he said. "Poor Bobby (Hockaday) and the other volunteers, they were trying to step on them, sit on them and break them a little before they hung them up."

Changing up the pinata design is one of several adjustments Crotzer foresees for the 2023 festival.

"We're going to have a lot of learning notes, and that's one of them," he said. "We didn't have a lot of time to be creative. We were just sort of putting out fires as they came up."

He said the festival's band lineup was good, but he wants more Native American performers next year. Just one performed Saturday, mostly because many Native American acts already were booked for other events.

"I would like to add more culture," Crotzer added. "Looking at next year, I'd like to have a sort of Taste of Tucumcari of all our restaurants, all our cultures. We need to get more variety to our music."

Crotzer also noted people crowding around a small tent erected for the soundboard so they could get some shade from the hot sun.

"I'm thinking we'd like to get a large tent over the (music) area so people can bring their lawn chairs and it would be like a day-in-the-park event and having a better area to dance," he said.

Crotzer said he would present a more detailed report about the festival's attendance and revenue during a future city commission meeting.