THRILLER NIGHT
1980s-themed burning of Old Man Gloom features a downsized live audience
Each year, Ray Sandoval aims to up the ante when it comes to staging Zozobra. Although the pandemic made last year’s event one without the usual crowds of spectators, it had its biggest audience ever, with more than 300,000 households tuning in to watch on KOATTV.
Sandoval, Zozobra event chair, is optimistic about this year’s event, which takes place Friday, Sept. 3.
Although the in-person crowd won’t be bigger than 14,000, Sandoval says the hybrid event will carry on the long-standing tradition.
“Let me tell you how creepy it was last year to have no audience,” he says. “That was a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” he says. “The audience is an essential part of our destruction of gloom. We’re glad to have it back in limited form this year.”
Sandoval and the Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe worked to make this year as safe as possible for patrons.
The first way is selling 10,000 general admission tickets, down from the usual 60,000.
“The resurgence of COVID hurts. Zozobra was happy, but the rest of us weren’t,” he says. “It would have been irresponsible for the club to bring together 60,000. We looked at spacing, and the number stands at 14,000 because we wanted to make room for kids.”
The Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe was able to make the decision to downsize the crowd size due to a $100,000 donation from Public Service Company of New Mexico and Avangrid.
“PNM has long supported the annual Zozobra event because of its ties to our community traditions. Zozobra is all about defeating our gloom, and allowing this year’s event to run a deficit would run counter to both the event’s goals and the Kiwanis Club’s mission to support our Santa Fe youth and community,” said Pat VincentCollawn, PNM chairman, president and CEO. “PNM is
more than willing to step up our support this year to allow the event to continue safely without financial detriment.”
Sandoval says that as attendance limits were considered, the ability to raise money and even to pay the event’s bills were in question.
He says the annual event has provided $1.9 million over the years to help the children of the Santa Fe community thrive. All of the nonprofit donations are made through ticket sales.
“Our first goal is to uphold the awesome tradition,” Sandoval says. “The second goal is to raise money for the children. This is possible today by going to our website and purchasing merchandise or submitting a gloom for $1. We’re going to need people to donate and help keep Zozobra alive.”
Sandoval says that with a few years until the 100th anniversary of Zozobra, his team aims to make it the best ever.
This year’s Zozobra is celebrating the 1980s as part of “The Decades Project,” which runs through 2024, Zozobra’s 100th anniversary.
The Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe teamed up again this year with KOAT-TV to broadcast “Zozobra: Live” at 9 p.m. Friday.