Spring Experience Mesilla Music Fest is happening

Folks will be able to walk through Mesilla March 26-28 and hear the evening drift of music in the air each night as the Experience Mesilla Spring Music Fest 2021 reminds them the world is re-opening. 

Local musicians will be jamming out at different times and locations throughout the weekend. The live kick off will be at 3 p.m. Friday, March 26, at New Mexico Vintage Market, 21310 Avenida de Mesilla in Mesilla.

“This is a free event,” said organizer Morgan Switzer. “We just ask you to come out and support these local businesses by purchasing a meal, drinks and the like.”

For a list of musicians, venues, and performance times, visit the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/experiencemesilla and click on the events tab. Each venue will follow COVID-19 protocols.

“There will be all different genres of music, some solo musicians and some multiples,” Switzer said. “All the performances will be outside, unless something happens with the weather. Considering the size of our community, we have a lot of super talented folks, a variety of different musicians.”

The Experience Mesilla program is a promotional and discount program to encourage customers to visit Mesilla.

Switzer-McGinley, who runs the Old Barrel Tea & Spice Company, and Russell Hernandez with Salud de Mesilla started Experience Mesilla in 2018, when they realized the city of Las Cruces was shifting its funding to revitalize the downtown area.

“We thought ‘Why don’t we get together to promote the experience of Mesilla, because it’s so different,’” Morgan said. “Mesilla is not like Las Cruces in so many ways. People come here and they feel like they are in a little Santa Fe or something.”

Switzer and Hernandez came up with Experience Mesilla and went around asking food and beverage providers to buy into the concept. The cost was $100 for lifetime membership.

“We wanted it to be power in numbers – to have as many people as we could,” Switzer said.

Experience Mesilla offers a glass, or a pocket card, which it sells at various locations. All the involved businesses, 26 of them, participate with a special offer or discount when presented with the glass or pocket card. Glasses and sell for $5 cash or $6 credit card. They extended the 2020 promotion to June 2021.

Specials from participating businesses include free wine flights, discounted wines and teas, a bowl of posole, 10 percent off meals and more. The money collected from the sale of glasses and cards goes to promote all of businesses as a group, Mesilla wide. Glasses and cards are available at the tea shop, New Mexico Vintage Market, Salud de Mesilla and New Mexico Vintage Wines.

“You can pay for your glass the first time you use it,” Switzer said. “We came in second place in New Mexico for ‘Most Unique Community Collaboration Grassroots Program.’ We are just excited that it took place in our area.”