Celebrating our heritage

PORTALES - A year after Heritage Days in Portales was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the festival came back with a vengeance on Friday and Saturday.

"It was one of our best ever," said Karl Terry, director of the Portales Chamber of Commerce. "It was one of the best attended and had the best participation" of any Heritage Days event he remembers, he added.

Beginning Friday evening, he said, "we had a great crowd for the street dance."

People gathered on bleachers around the pavement cleared for the dance floor, and found seating on the park lawn nearby.

He credited pleasant weather and the presence of food trucks, usually not a feature of the street dance event, with drawing and keeping the crowd there.

The car show on Saturday, which usually draws 60 to 70 entries, he said, drew 110 entrants.

"They went all the way around the park," he said.

The fun run and walk that kicked off Heritage Days events Saturday morning drew more than 100 entries, about 30 to 40 more than usual.

Terry attributed the greater number of entrants to the shortening of the race course from 10 kilometers, or 6.2 miles, to 2 miles.

Jeff Gentry, who organized the event for the Portales Woman's Club, said the weather helped, too.

In a news release, he said, "the runners and walkers enjoyed mild temperatures and just a 6 mile-per-hour wind."

Volunteers from the Woman's Club, the Eastern New Mexico University cross country team and Portales police officers assured safety for the participants.

Gentry said, "It's wonderful to resume Heritage Days this year and put bodies in motion after a hard year."

Also promoting health was the La Casa Family Health Center, which administered COVID-19 vaccinations to festival goers.

Among the live music acts that performed from late morning into the afternoon, was a band called The Groove, which consisted of high school freshmen and sophomores from Curry and Roosevelt counties.

After only three rehearsals, the young musicians performed individually and then finished together with a Beatles tune.

Even with the year off and the good attendance, Terry said, "things went very smoothly," including the parade, which provided an opportunity for local businesses and organizations to show what they have to offer, Terry said.