Zozobra

Four stars
We went to the 2015 Zozobra and had a great time despite the rain. I timed the official show, including the robed people and the fire dancers to the end of the fireworks to be about 40 minutes with Old Man Gloom groaning or growling throughout until he collapses into cinders. The fireworks start before Zozobra starts to animate, and continue as accents throughout the firedancer and Zozobra’s gyrations and flashing eyes. Finally fireworks go off in his head and body, then the flames start. The fire seems to last for about ten minutes until He collapses, then the big fireworks show takes over the remainder of the show with big long lasting display and bigger finale. It was a great show.
However I have some helpful suggestions for the organizers and out of town visitors. I’m somewhat surprised that after 91 years these details still need to be addressed.
— I could not find the actual location (Fort Marcy Park, 490 Bishops Lodge Road, Santa Fe) mentioned anywhere on the official event map or website. The only map showed a too-​small-​to-​use version of shuttle and train routes with an arrow pointing off the top of the map toward «Zozobra.» Maybe clear to people who already know where it is, not so clear to new people. I did not find the name Fort Marcy Park anywhere. This should be on the front page of the website. Visitors need to plan and want to know about nearby restaurants, etc.
— We arrived early and found what appeared to be free and legal parking outside Fort Marcy Park on Old Taos Highway which is a back street with no curbstones. This impression was reinforced by some specific locations with «no parking between signs» and no other signage. I’ve been to many events and festivals over the last 60 years and if there were temporary festival related parking restrictions, officials have always put up plenty of temporary no-​parking signs, but for Zozobra, nothing. Nor did any of the many nearby security guards advise us of the parking restriction. We parked in a safe-​looking unmarked space and went into the city for food and to kill time spending money locally. When it started raining, we went back to the car to read and wait until the event was closer. Lucky us, we were there when a fleet of police cars and tow vehicles arrived to tag and tow all the cars that were lulled into parking in the unmarked areas. We escaped just in time. This lack of proper notification reeks of entrapment. Out-​of-​towners beware. For $ 10 we were able park a block away. I shudder to think of the fines and delays for the unsuspecting victims getting their cars out of hock at midnight.
— Thirdly, somebody needs to hire a qualified sound professional. When we came onto the grounds an excellent rock group was doing a great job of covering a bunch of crowd-​pleasers. Their sound was perfect and I’m convinced that’s because they monitored their own sound. After that, another band came on and clearly good sound control went away. Everything for the rest of the evening (up to the pre-​recorded Zozobra soundtrack which was done well) was massively over-​driven, resulting in painful distortion, loss of all detail, and mostly only buzzy thumps of the bass. This was true for the musical acts and the announcers. I was very disappointed in not being able to clearly hear the all-​female Mariachi band because of the over-​driven sound equipment. It’s a shame for the many people who worked hard to put together their acts or their speeches only to have it trashed by a clueless sound operator.
— Finally, amateur speakers, enough of the repeated «I can’t hear you» gimmick. It’s like telling the same joke over and over. Twice is too much.
But Zozobra itself was great.

An event with so much potential. Cool but for hours preceding the burn there is really is a huge gathering for 10 minutes of burning with nothing going on beforehand. recommend you arrive as late as you can toward. 9:00 so you don’t have to wait and do nothing. Walk as close as you’d like and watch the burn. Would be a better festival with a better location and activities, drinks and food while you wait hours for a quick burn. One Zozobra is lit however it’s fun to watch his burn while people scream and yell Burn him! Its nothing like the «Burning Man» event, but it’s a family friendly safe albeit a bit boring, original burning man event. Charge double and add an adult area with cocktails, good live entertainment, preceding the burn and then you’re on to something. Worth seeing while we happened to be there in town, but don’t plan a trip to Santa Fe just for this event.

2014 — Love this event… we go every year! Only complaint is the food prices are crazy! $ 6 bucks for a lemonade $ 10 for an Indian taco. Cool thing is you can bring your own food into the park. Major issue this year was the guy who sang the National Anthem he messed up and said «something something something… or whatever» then said whoops let’s try again… crowed booed. It’s really disrespectful to play out your mistake like that. Hope he isn’t asked to come back.

Soooo much fun. It was great to see old and young screaming «burn!» Love the symbolism of the festival and met some really great people. Everyone was very friendly, and the festival is a great time. Lots of fireworks, performers, and buildup to the big burning. The Marionette is well done, moves, moans and groans, lots of fun!

Zozobra! Something you must see!
First — the other reviews here are great! read them also, this is just my small experience.
Ok… just a few things, no there isn’t any alcohol but that might be good for some. The bands I have never heard of but they were good. I have never met a person who couldn’t get in at the gate, so you don’t have to buy tickets ahead of time like the website says. Food there was well… fair type food with long lines and big prices, eat before you go.
Now on with Zozobra. 2008 was my first Zozbra and WOW was I amazed! Nearly 25,000 people showed up and a good majority was just 30 minutes or so before the big show. The VERY best fireworks show I have ever seen! another great thing was hearing the kids chant «Burn Him, Burn Him, Burn Him!!» Which sounds awful but read Rachel’s review to get a better history on it and why kids would be chanting that.
Over all it was just a killer awesome event and would love to go to it again!

Zozobra is hands down the coolest thing about Santa Fe. Reviewer Rachel already did a good job of explaining the history, so I won’t go over that again. I’ll just say some of the funnest times I’ve had in this town have been at the beginning of Fiestas when they burn Old Man Gloom. Too many times I’ve had to work and missed it but I’ve still seen it 4 times, once in 1982 when I was a wee child and then 3 more times in the past 8 years. It has changed (in my eyes) from a much smaller crowd (1982) watching him burn from what seemed like much closer up, to the even more massive inundation of downtown by drunks, old-​timers, tourists, part-​timers, kids, leftover Fiesta goers, accidental tourists and whatever else you can think of.
I have to say I think last night was the best one ever for me. I walked to the top of the path to the cross and watched him burn while drinking a couple of beers with my pal and we had a great view. Of course you never know who might plop down next to you and this year it was a couple of biddies who talked about lung cancer to each other while me and my pal smoked (and then chain smoked to try to get them to move). We later dubbed them «the staters of the obvious» as they felt the need to narrate each and every detail of the night but oddly late, like «oh, he’s making some sort of noise, do you hear that» all the while, Old Man Gloom has been moaning and wailing for 5 minutes, getting louder and louder all the time and if not for the yapping blather of Our Ladies Of The Obvious behind us, they might have heard it earlier.
Of course this all added to the night — My favorite — «Oh no, we’re missing McCain’s speech!!!» — reminding me to add another bad thought from the last year to the fire. Thanks ladies, for some pretty incredible entertainment. You filled the gap that I like to call «round 2» that was sadly missing this year: As you walk away from the field, after the burning, marching along in the sea of people all screaming «Viva Fiestas» and some even singing, you are usually greeted after walking past the Scottish Rite Temple by the fine folks from Potter’s House, who have set up a flatbed trailer and given microphones to some of their teenage members and piped up the PA system and broadcast for all to hear about how evil we all are for participating in the Pagan ceremony of Zozobra. Pure excitement! But like I said, gone this year, or maybe they were somewhere else and I didn’t see them. Phooey. Well anyhow, the Ladies Of The Obvious were almost as entertaining, so many thanks to them and I hope their dog is ok and one of them makes it to her hair appointment next time (instead of forgetting it like she did yesterday, sillyhead) and I know they’re worried about kids thinking Zozbra is too scary but I’m sure they’ll figure something out in years to come and one day we’ll be able to thank them and their «Committee for Censoring the Ceremony» and I’m sure the McCain speech will live on in some other form, re-​incarnated as a hot dog or a birch beetle one day or maybe even as a youtube video, imagine that?!

The Burning of Zozobra is a not to be missed event.
Let me tell you in advance; there is no booze, there are no seats, and you will do a lot of walking.
So, my advise is to bring either seats or blankets. Get there early to get a good seat. You can buy hamburgers, funnel cake, cotton candy and soft drinks there. I’d advise eating beforehand. Or bring your own picnic.
And before you get there, write out things you’d like gone from your life on little pieces of paper. If you get there before dark, you can go up front and have them put into boxes that will be put inside Zozobra so your bad things can be burnt right along with him. Very cathartic.
As for getting to the event, you’ll hear that there are shuttle buses. There are not. You can ride the regular bus (the #2) into downtown, but that only runs until 10:30pm. Pay for parking downtown. Again, get there early.
WEAR COMFORTABLE SHOES.
And you will get ash and smoke on you. Don’t get your hair done or wear a nice outfit. Deal with it, or stay home.
It is one hell of a good time.
The people in charge could cut down on the amount of interpretive dance before they actually torch him, but it did give me a chance to hit a port-​a-​potty and they did set off a Fourth of July worth of fireworks.
They will not torch him before full dark. And they will take their time doing it. Once lit, he will burn up in about a minute. And then everyone will head for the exits. This will take more time than the set-​up to burning him. Again, plan for this. Either deal with the slow crush to get out of the park, settle down in the park and listen to the free music, or find an alternate place to watch.
But where else are you going to see a three-​story-​tall marionette scream as he burns and people cheer while fireworks are set off?
Might be slightly disturbing for the younger viewer. :)

The BURNING OF ZOZOBRA, or OLD MAN GLOOM, has taken place for 83 years as a kick-​off to the FIESTAS DE SANTA FE.
Any chance this was the pre-​cursor to BURNING MAN???
«Zozobra is a hideous, but harmless FIFTY FOOT MARIONETTE. He is a toothless, empty-​headed façade. He has no guts and doesn’t have a leg to stand on. He is full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. He never wins. He moans and groans, rolls his eyes and twists his head. His mouth gapes and chomps. His arms flail about in frustration.
Every year we do him in. We string him up and burn him down in ablaze of fireworks. At last, he is gone, taking with him all our troubles for another whole year. Santa Fe celebrates another victory. Viva la Fiesta!» — A.W. Denninger (from the website —
)
This tradition of kicking off Fiestas has ENDURED SINCE 1924! It is the city’s way of releasing all the BAD SPIRITS THAT LURK ABOUT and the GLOOM WE CARRY INSIDE US for another year.
The celebration begins slowly as nightfall sets in.
The FIRE SPIRIT DANCER appears! Zozobra begins to slowly move his arms and head with a very slow moaning & groaning beginning. The Fire Spirit Dancer, dressed in red, with increasing intensity drives alway the SPIRITS OF GLOOM, dancers dressed in white, from the steps at the base of Zozobra .
As they begin to dance FASTER AND FASTER to the music, they light the bottom of Zozobra’s LONG DRAPED ROBE, it slowly burns up & up, he begins to thrash violently and with increasingly LOUDER AND LOUDER FURY! FIREWORKS begin to light up the sky shot from the base of the figure and the music INCREASES IN INTENSITY and his GROANS BECOME LOUDER. .. . until. .. .. . finally he is caught up in a FURY OF FLAMES and GROANS and. .. . then. .. then. .. he is GONE.. . along with ALL OUR GLOOM so we can CELEBRATE FIESTAS for yet another year!
A renouned tradition, the OLDEST CIVIC CELEBRATION IN NORTH AMERICA, Zozobra was created by one of the original Santa Fe artists, Will Schuster, and is carried on by the local Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe as a community fundraiser.
«The fire dance was created by Jacques Cartier, a former New York ballet dancer and local dance teacher, who performed the role for 37 years. His dance student, James Lilienthal took over the fire spirit role in 1970 and has continued it for 32 years.»
FIESTAS DE SANTA FE is a time of music, dancing, fun & celebration, good food & friendships. When my parents were still in Santa Fe, they lived right next door to this park, so I always had front row seats — of course I was looking at Z’s backside, but, hey, the food was free and the wine bottle was bottomless!
A TIME OF JOY each September!
A TIME YOU WON’T EVER FORGET, if you are lucky enough to be at the BURNING OF OLD MAN GLOOM!
ZOZOBRA!