Serving a taste of New Mexico: How Chile Traditions prepares for Balloon Fiesta crowds

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – Balloon Fiesta is in full swing, and attendees come to the park in droves to experience the spectacle. While waiting for the balloons to go up, many look to grab a bite to eat and drink to help them warm up.

For the vendors, it is an early morning in a warm tent, filled with nonstop burrito wrapping, as they fulfill food and drink orders across vendor row. Hundreds of people line up to get a taste of New Mexico.

“There’s always hotdogs and turkey legs. It always amazes me the amount of people that are eating pizza and turkey legs at 4 o’clock in the morning,” said Erica Hahn, Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta concessions and entertainment manager.

Balloon Fiesta is home to 40 vendors this year, serving everything from traditional breakfast burritos to Indian food and even boba tea. Guests are offered a variety of options but can choose to enjoy classic New Mexico traditions as well.

“I think it’s just everything about the Balloon Fiesta: the burritos, the crowds, the drone show we just saw a few minutes ago; it’s just all part of it. We love it,” said Theresa and her partner Wayne, two Balloon Fiesta attendees.

Ken Dewees has been vending at Balloon Fiesta for 23 years from his Chile Traditions booth – a booth he has expanded from 10 feet to over 40 feet through the years. Chile Traditions is a vendor not known for serving food but for roasting chile.

“We don’t normally do food. We do roasted green chile, fresh red chile, and a bunch of New Mexico stuff,” said Dewees.

Dewees said he opened the booth years ago so that people coming to fiesta could have the opportunity to try fresh roasted chile, and it’s something that he has continued through this day.

Dewees roasts over 2,000 pounds of chile and makes over 15,000 burritos over the nine days of fiesta. “This is a way that all those people from other states, from other countries, from all over the world can try fresh Hatch chile and see that it’s the best chile in the world,” said Dewees.

Chile Traditions will be roasting chile at fiesta through the last day, on Sunday, October 13. But for those who missed fiesta, Chile Traditions will roast more chile at its store until the first freeze, around the end of October or the beginning of November.

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