2025 Rio Abajo Becker Street Festival this Saturday

BELEN—It’s bound to be a day of fun, good food, better music, lots of activities and a celebration of who we were and who we are.

The 22nd annual Rio Abajo Becker Street Festival will bring hundreds, if not thousands, of people to downtown Belen from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 27. The festivities will be held from Main Street, down Becker Avenue to Fifth Street.

The annual festival is hosted by the Greater Valencia County Chamber of Commerce, and its executive director says it’s going to be a day of fun and celebration.

“We’re very excited,” said Rhona Espinoza, the chamber’s executive director. “This year, we’re going to make a few changes. We didn’t get to have a beer and wine tent last year ... so this year, we decided we’d move it onto Dalies Avenue, on the street with tables and chairs inside a fenced area, but those inside will be able to see the band.

“What’s the most beautiful thing about this event is it’s named after the Rio Abajo Valley, which is all the way from Socorro to the South Valley of Albuquerque,” Espinoza said. “We make sure we have food the celebrates the Rio Abajo culture. We have artisans who create work that honors the culture.”

The beer and wine tent is sponsored by the Hub City Brewery, Chavez Winery and Black Smuggler’s Winery.

Espinoza said this years festival will be a little more compact, not further down Becker Avenue as in year’s past. She said vendors, along with informational booths, will have more of an opportunity to be successful.

The car show is also moving up a block. It will be set up on Becker Avenue just east of the old Bank of Albuquerque building.

“It’ll feel more connected to our festival,” Espinoza said. “We have 25 preregistered, but we’re expecting at least 50 more this week because they’re watching the weather.”

What’s commonly known as a Poker Run, the Moose Riders will host a similar High Hand Motorcycle Run at the Rio Abajo Becker Street Festival.

There will be a variety of food trucks at this year’s festival — in the City Hall parking lot — including Parker’s Pizza, Rodriguez Mexican Food, Lonchera La Morada, a couple of roasted corn stands, two shaved ice, two serving barbecue and two serving hamburgers and hot dogs.

“There will be a lot of arts and crafts vendors, and we actually ran out of space for them, too,” she said. “Everyone wants to be a part of it.”

Along with their yearly cake walk, the Pilot Club of Belen will be giving away and fitting bicycle helmets for the youth. Pilot International matched the grant to buy the $600 worth of helmets. The community organization will also be putting on a puppet show, Brain Minders, talking about bullying, water safety, playground safety and more.

Other activities at this year’s festival will be a fish pond, Valencia High School’s FFA will be doing face painting and will host a corn hole tournament, and Icky’s Youth Center will be hosting miniature golf.

Along with Dance in Motion Academy performing, there will be several bands, including The Band N Company, performing at 11:30 a.m., Daniel Solis Band at 3 p.m., Black Pearl Band at 5 and 2nd to Last Chance from 7-9 p.m.

There will be a dance contest at 6 p.m. featuring the twist, rancheras, two step, jitterbug and swing.

“The best part about Rio Abajo is that it’s a free community event. You can come and, we hope you spend money here, but you don’t need to,” Espinoza said. “You can come and enjoy wonderful bands all day long, the car show, enjoy the vendors. But we want you to enjoy each other. It’s a community event; it’s so beautiful that we can have this event to celebrate our community.”

The chamber will also be holing a drawing for a 43-inch flat screen TV and will be holding a 50/50 drawing. For more information, email Espinoza at rhona@valenciacountychamber.com.