Santa Fe ready to say adiós to 2020

TV broadcast, fireworks display will ring in new year

Santa Fe’s sixth annual New Year’s Eve festivities on the Plaza will be a little different this year.

Like just about every other large event in 2020, the city’s New Year’s Eve celebration is shifting from an hourslong outdoor public gathering — with piñon bonfires and hot chocolate — to a short show people can tune in to from the warmth and comfort of their homes.

Beginning at 11:30 p.m. Thursday, KOB-TV will broadcast live music on the Plaza by Santa Fe guitarist Amado Abeyta and mayors from across New Mexico will share a brief statement for viewers before ringing in the new year.

Abeyta said he’ll be playing two songs: an original written by his father, and one that he wrote.

“What do you say?” Abeyta said of New Year’s Eve. “It’s gonna be so different, but we’re doing our best to try to make it as normal as we can.”

After the performance, Abeyta said he plans to spend the rest of the evening at home with his puppy, Kenobi — named after Star Wars Jedi, Obi Wan Kenobi.

The show also will be livestreamed on KOB’s website.

The Plaza will be closed to the general public for New Year’s Eve, but at midnight, residents can enjoy a roughly 10-minute fireworks display lit from the roof of La Fonda on the Plaza, said Ray Sandoval, a spokesman for Public Service Company of New Mexico and a member of the Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe, which had presented the city’s past New Year’s celebrations.

PNM, the state’s largest electric utility, is one of a handful of sponsors of the event.

Because of the financial hardship spurred by the coronavirus pandemic, PNM donated about $15,000 for the fireworks show and another $30,000 to cover the cost of food for event volunteers, personal protective equipment, the TV production and a new zia lighting system, Sandoval said.

The New Mexico Tourism Department plans to send information about the event to about 300,000 email addresses.

Sandoval said that effort is in part meant as a reminder that tourism likely will be the key to the state’s economic recovery after the pandemic is over.

“It’s just been such a horrible year for everyone, and we thought we really needed to say goodbye, adiós 2020,” Sandoval said.

“And what better symbol could it be than our zia piercing the blackness … to remind us that morning is coming,” he added. “That sunrise is coming after this horrible long, dark night of 2020.”