From Indigenous fashion and cuisine to world-class art and cultural experiences, Santa Fe’s summer calendar offers countless ways to discover the creativity, traditions, and innovations that make the City Different a cultural destination.
Santa Fe's summer event calendar includes decades-old world-class events that draw visitors from around the world and new events that are just getting started. The sheer amount of things happening in Santa Fe in July and August can be overwhelming to a visitor. We've put together a list of events not-to-miss this summer in Santa Fe.
The Santa Fe Opera’s 69th Season
The summer season officially begins with the opening of the Santa Fe Opera on July 3 to August 29. This summer's season includes Madama Butterfly, The Magic Flute, Eugene Onegin, Rodelinda and the American premiere of Lili Elbe.
IF YOU GO: The Opera Preview Dinners offer a wonderful complement to the evening's performance, featuring an opera-inspired buffet menu and an introduction to the opera by a speaker during dessert. Tickets are $81 per person. Preview dinners must be ordered three days in advance. View the menu in advance.
Photo © Courtesy of the Santa Fe Opera
Spanish Market Celebrates 100 Years
On July 25-26, explore a Santa Fe signature event: the Traditional Spanish Market on the Santa Fe Plaza. This century-old juried event celebrates and preserves the artistic traditions of Spanish settlers in New Mexico. Founded in 1926, the market is the largest of its kind in the country.
Visitors can expect to see carved religious figures (bultos), painted retablos (devotional paintings or altar pieces), colcha embroidery, weavings, and other traditional crafts. The market is open Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is free to the public.
IF YOU GO: Check out the Contemporary Hispanic Market on Lincoln Avenue in downtown Santa Fe. Held concurrently with the Traditional Spanish Market, the Contemporary Hispanic Market showcases and promotes contemporary Hispanic art.
Traditional Spanish Market. Photo © Courtesy of Santa Fe.org
Zeitgeist Dance Theatre Santa Fe’s New Contemporary Dance Company
On August 1, Zeitgeist Dance Theatre will return to Santa Fe for its fifth summer residency and performance in New Mexico and its debut performance at the Lensic Performing Arts Center.
This year’s production features more than 75 diverse artists and six contemporary dance works by Livona Ellis (Vancouver, British Columbia), Francisco Gella (Santa Fe), Vladimir Conde Reche (Brazil/Albuquerque), Jessica Miller Tomlinson (Chicago) and Madison Falconer (Los Angeles/Traverse City, Michigan). The works are brought to life by a dynamic cast of dancers from across New Mexico and around the world.
For tickets to An Evening of Contemporary Dance, click here.
IF YOU GO: Consider returning to the Lensic a week later to see Zeitgeist Dance Theatre’s colleagues, Moving Arts Española, at the Lensic. El Agua es Vida (Water is Life) is an evening of theater, dance, live music, and visual art created and performed by Moving Arts students and a cast of intergenerational performers. With an emphasis on the importance of water throughout New Mexico, the evening honors the generations who have fought to protect it.
ZDT Performance of 'Lineage'. Photo © Audrey Durell
The 48th Annual Whitehawk Antique Indian & Ethnographic Art Show
The 48th annual Whitehawk Antique Indian & Ethnographic Art Show returns August 6-9 to the Santa Fe Convention Center with more than 130 global exhibitors. The show features historic objects from Native American and First Nations cultures, as well as ethnographic art from around the world.
This year, the Whitehawk Art Show will host two exhibitions:
The First Moderns: Navajo/Diné Textiles 1870-1900, the First Modern Art in the United States focuses on colorful Germantown weavings from the late 19th century.
Heritage: A Legacy of Tradition—Australian Indigenous Art features paintings by acclaimed Australian Indigenous artists depicting Dreamtime. Collected over 40 years, the works in this exhibit illustrate Aboriginal peoples’ creation stories and their connection to landscape, consciousness, and time.
IF YOU GO: Attend one of the preview openings on Thursday, August 6: the Native American Jump Start Benefit Preview ($175) from 5-7 p.m. or the SWAIA Benefit Preview ($125) from 7-9 p.m. Proceeds from the evening support the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts and Native American Jump Start. Purchase tickets here.
Allie MaGraw and Guest at Whitehawk Art Show. Photo © Courtesy of Whitehawk Art Show.
The 104th Annual Santa Fe Indian Market Gala & Live Auction
This year’s premier fundraising event features a culinary experience curated by Chef Pyet DeSpain (Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation/Mexican), founder of Pyet’s Plate and winner of Gordon Ramsay’s culinary competition Next Level Chef. The evening’s fashion component will feature a runway presentation by award-winning designers Patricia Michaels (Taos Pueblo) and Jamie Okuma (Luiseño, Wailaki, Okinawan, and Shoshone-Bannock). Baby Opie (Cree/Anishinaabe), a powwow dancer, singer, and drummer who became a TikTok sensation, will perform alongside surprise Native musical guests.
The live auction includes exceptional offerings from artists Isaiah Begay (Navajo), Rebecca Lacraio (Acoma Pueblo), Frederica Antonio (Acoma Pueblo), Adrian Stevens (Ute/Shoshone-Bannock/San Carlos Apache), and Sean Snyder (Navajo/Ute), as well as a culinary package and experience with /shed project—by chef and ceramicist Johnny Ortiz-Concha. In addition to the live auction, SWAIA’s silent auction features more than 50 items available for bidding.
IF YOU GO: Explore the 104th Annual Santa Fe Indian Market on Saturday, August 15, and Sunday, August 16, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Hundreds of the world’s leading Native American artists line the streets in and around the Plaza, showcasing pottery, jewelry, two-dimensional art, sculpture, weavings, and more. Get a jump start on researching your favorite artists by exploring the SWAIA directory.
Actor/Model Gene Brave Rock on the SWAIA runway. Photo © Charles Montoya
Click here to discover more summer fun in Santa Fe.
(Cover image) 2025 Indian Market. Photo © Kitty Leaken
