Carbondale Arts has scheduled its Día de los Muertos celebration for First Friday, November 6, 2026. It is the first since 2025 without the youth troupe that danced in the procession for years. Aspen Santa Fe Ballet Folklórico joined the festivities for the last time on November 7, 2025, and its valley program closed soon after.
What remains is a celebration whose most visible performance is now an open question, and whose quieter parts never depended on any one group. The community ofrenda, the business altars along Main Street and the walk from the Third Street Center to 4th Street Plaza all belong to whoever shows up. This year the dancing does too, carried by four young former students who are still looking for a place to practice.
A program built on one instructor
The Folklórico program started in 1998. It offered free after-school classes in Mexican folkloric dance to students around the Roaring Fork Valley, and it performed for years at the Carbondale celebration. In 2022, when The Sopris Sun marked the event's 18th year, it listed Aspen Santa-Fe Ballet as a presenter alongside Carbondale Arts, Thunder River Theater and Valley Settlement.
The program had one longtime instructor. In July 2025, Aspen Public Radio reported that Aspen Santa Fe Ballet was winding down its Roaring Fork Folklórico program after 27 years because director Francisco "Paco" Nevarez-Burgueño was retiring. The station said finding a successor had proved difficult. It also pointed to harder-to-get work visas, rising local living costs and federal arts-funding cuts. That November, the Post Independent reported his final performance date as December 7. It said his departure ended the community program, which lacked the funding to replace him.
Speaking to the Post Independent before that last Carbondale procession, Nevarez-Burgueño described the troupe's role at the celebration this way:
"The Aspen Santa Fe Ballet Folklórico program has been very important to the (Día de los Muertos) celebration because we are the ones who provide the real traditions, like dances and the tradition to celebrate beside the altars."
The organization's Folklórico program in Santa Fe has continued, according to a 2025 Sopris Sun report citing an organization press release. The program that closed was the Roaring Fork Valley one, which had been training Carbondale's procession dancers.
Four dancers, no studio yet
The program's former students picked up where it left off. In early October, The Aspen Times profiled Amy Roman. She started folklórico seven years ago after watching her aunt, who was part of the program's first generation, and she founded Ballet Folklórico de Valle to keep dancing after the old program ended. The group has four members: Alexa Najera, Ayelen Chavez, Cristina Landeros and Roman.
Roman is working to make the group a nonprofit. She said she wants to bring back the free model she grew up with:
"It used to be free in the beginning and costumes were provided, and I see a lot of little kids asking where it's gone. I want to restart that."
The Aspen Times laid out what the group still needs. It wants an instructor and a permanent practice space, and Roman is working toward her own teaching certification in case an instructor takes longer to find. "There's currently four of us in the group, and we need some financing," she told the paper.
The group has already performed this fall. It danced at Noche Latina and was scheduled for the Children's Literacy Arts Festival at the Glenwood Springs Branch Library on October 10. As of that October 5 report, it was "working to perform" at Carbondale's November First Friday. Carbondale Arts' listing for the November 6 event still says more details are coming. Anyone hoping to see folklórico in this year's procession should check that page during the week before the event.
The part of the night anyone can build
Whoever ends up dancing, the ofrendas go up as usual, and they have always depended on the community. Carbondale Arts describes the celebration as starting with a community altar on the front patio of The Launchpad at 76 S. 4th Street. Anyone may add a photo or memento of a loved one, and the altar stays up for a week. Businesses and residents also put up their own ofrendas along Main Street.
The organization's posted ofrenda guidelines include a few practical rules:
- Community altar at The Launchpad: setup on Nov. 2, takedown on Nov. 9.
- What to bring: photo copies are recommended over originals. If you bring something framed, put your contact information on the back.
- What to leave home: food, because of animals.
- Business altars: set up inside participating businesses between Oct. 15 and Nov. 1 and taken down after Nov. 8.
The guidelines document has no year printed on it, so it is worth confirming the dates with Carbondale Arts before you drop anything off. The same document shows what a traditional altar includes: flowers, papel picado, candles, pan de muerto, decorative skulls, typical food and water, and personal objects or photos of the person being remembered.
The guidelines also show how much of the evening comes from residents. Participants supply the altar's photographs, framed pictures and mementos, and Main Street's ofrendas come from the shops that choose to build them.
From Oct. 24 to Nov. 6, in order
Before November 6, Carbondale has a busy stretch around Halloween. Some of it is connected to Día de los Muertos and some of it is unrelated.
- Saturday, Oct. 24, 4 p.m. Bonedale Flashmob performs "Thrill the World 2026" at 4th and Main. The Sopris Sun reported that the troupe is raising funds for the Safe and Abundant Nutrition Alliance, known as SANA.
- Saturday, Oct. 24, 7 to 10 p.m. The Zombie Pub Crawl moves through participating downtown locations, according to the Carbondale Recreation and Community Center events page.
- Sunday, Oct. 25, 2 p.m. Carbondale Clay Center holds a Día de los Muertos session where participants paint a calavera, according to the Sopris Sun's community calendar.
- Monday, Nov. 2. Setup for the community altar at The Launchpad, per Carbondale Arts' posted guidelines.
- Friday, Nov. 6. Día de los Muertos First Friday downtown.
Where the evening actually runs
The two official listings give different hours. Carbondale Arts, the organizer, lists 5 to 8 p.m. at 4th Street Plaza. The Recreation and Community Center lists 5 to 9 p.m. on Main Street and in Chacos Park. If you want the procession and the plaza program, plan around the organizer's hours. If you are walking the Main Street altars or eating late, the longer listing may cover you.
Carbondale Arts lists the procession as starting at 6 p.m. at the Third Street Center. It follows 3rd Street to Main Street and ends at 4th Street Plaza. On the plaza there are live performances, face painting, Lotería, pan de muerto and Mexican hot chocolate, with food trucks and local restaurants serving. Carbondale Arts' general Día page still names Aspen Santa-Fe Ballet Folklórico as the procession's dancers. That wording predates the program's closure.
The crowd has grown over the years. In 2018, The Aspen Times described an event that began fairly small more than a decade earlier and had grown to a procession of more than 200 people. Community collaborators that year included Valley Settlement, Thunder River Theatre Company, SOL Theatre, the Third Street Center and Mezcla Socials. By 2023, the Post Independent quoted Carbondale Arts executive director Jamie Abbott describing the streets as packed. Last year's procession was led by a person dressed as a monarch butterfly, and marigold-shaped lights were wrapped around downtown trees, according to the Post Independent's photo coverage of the 21st celebration.
If you want to sponsor or take part in this year's event, Carbondale Arts directs inquiries to [email protected] and also posts a volunteer sign-up. Ballet Folklórico de Valle has said it is looking for an instructor, a studio and financing.
Bruce Johnson is glad to talk about the town's calendar or the downtown blocks around 4th Street Plaza whenever it helps. When you are ready to talk about a property, we can start with a Request a Home Valuation.
