Corrales Harvest Festival

I've been coming to the harvest festival my entire life. Year and year, I experience the heart of Corrales with hay rides, amazing food and vendors! Learn about this local community with plenty of fun activities and don't forget the green chili!!!

So kind of by accident I won tickets to this event on a local radio station. If it weren't for that happening and a Yelp! posting (thanks, Howie!), I wouldn't have even known this was a thing. But, I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth so we went on a Saturday. Corrales is a really cool little town. I just felt like this festival could have been a bit more organized. It was pretty much all over the town in different areas with tractors packing people in and taking them seemingly anywhere and everywhere because even though we were there for 2 hours we didn't even make it to where the food was being served. I'm assuming the tickets I won were for the tractor rides but since nobody was checking we didn't even need them. We did find one area with a kids zone and a killer library sale so we scored some good books and the little guy jumped around in a bounce house for a few and seemed to enjoy it. We parked where we thought it may be because there was someone flagging the traffic but then we didn't see any signs so we walked a mile down to take a tractor ride that took us right back to where our car was. We found a patch of land with some tents and finally saw a BBQ place but they were sold out (it was about 1pm at this point). We then went to get lemonade which was also...you guessed it, sold out. But we found a group of tweens down the road running their own lemonade stand and bought 2 cups for a dollar each (can't beat that with a stick!). All in all, it was a beautiful day and a fun time but my only request is that next year they choose a more centralized location for the entire festival or at least put up some signs for people like me.

Excellent event at a charming little town. There is a lot more in Corrales that meets the eye. There are cultural sites, pony rides, vendors galore, kids areas, food trucks and so much more.The event is actually very well organized, they split up the event into multiple locations, each with its own unique character. You can walk up and down the main street Corrales road to get to all the events (its open and free to everyone). There are information booths that will give you a map showing what is happening at each location (I don't want to spoil the surprise but each area has its own attractions).The only fee is a few bucks for the hayrides, there are at least 23 tractors pulling hay carts that you ride on to get from any location to any other location. The wrist strap they put on your wrist when you buy your tickets gives you free access and there are persons at every stop to help you on and off the trailer that has the hay seats you ride on.The tape they give you at the info booth is clear and gives you a clear idea of which stops yo'll find most interesting. I suggest stopping at all of them, the tractors run very often and usually only a one or two minutes wait for the next one.One of the major stops is at the Corrales Growers Market which I highly recommend. We enjoyed all the stops at the Harvest Festival then ate at the food truck stop then we shopped for the excellent veggies and other treats at the Corrales Growers Market, thats a win-win for us!There is plenty of free parking, there are people at the intersections with red flags to guide you to the nearest parking lot (there is plenty of free parking in the lots). Since the tractors are running up and down Corrales Road, much of the road is closed for this event but each section that is closed has a parking lot so its actually a very convenient event to attend.If you have never attended, I recommend you try it out and check out all the stops to see which are your favorite.

It's evident that the Village has made it very difficult for any vendor to do business at both the Harvest Festival and Corrales Growers Market. I've heard firsthand stories from prospective vendors and food trucks who refuse to do business within the Village of Corrales.It's unfortunate, as I remember the Harvest Festival used to have art and food vendors.Not anymore. I don't even bother to take friends and family, as it has really gone down hill.I would recommend any of the art festivals in Santa Fe, or the local wine and food festivals here in Albuquerque. Simply skip this Corrales Harvest Festival. There's NOTHING THERE!

Was pretty inconvenient didn't really seem to have designated parking areas. And we kept getting lost on the hayrides. I'm not quite sure how that was possible. Also there really wasn't anything much to do or look at. The petting zoo was a huge disappointment. Also everything else seem to be State Fair priced. Like I said there really wasn't much going on over here just a couple of okay food stands and a bunch of events that didn't seem to be starting for a long time. And I wasn't very clear on what I paid the $10 for was it for the hay bale rides parking I don't know nobody else around me seem to be having a good time either. Most of my entertainment came from laughing at people being horribly miserable. We got there and it took us about an hour and a half to find anywhere that sold food. After that we finally made it to the so-called food court but we had already Eaton. All in all I probably won't be back next year