An encore for Lensic 360
Feb. 2—The season for booking concerts never really ends.
Jamie Lenfestey, the director of Lensic 360, kept busy this winter by booking a spring full of events in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and beyond, and he's currently working on an encore to the Summer Scene series that brought more than 50 free events to Santa Fe venues last year. Local bands can be nominated from now until the end of March at the organization's website.
Lenfestey says he hopes eventually to expand that kind of programming to Albuquerque, and his staff has spent the winter making inroads for the future.
"November and December, even into January, is a little bit of a slow period for actual shows," Lenfestey says of the state's concert schedule. "But behind the scenes we are all working as hard as ever to not just book shows, but to do all of the fundraising and all of the hard work in the community."
The veteran promoter left AMP Concerts along with compatriot Tim Franke last February to form Lensic 360, which was envisioned as an extension of the Lensic Performing Arts Center's brand in Santa Fe. And it was a bit of a whirlwind, because they had to plan out an entire concert season on the fly.
Lensic 360 put on shows in Taos in addition to Santa Fe and Albuquerque last year, and they're bringing the Avett Brothers to Kit Carson Park in July. Lenfestey hopes to be able to name the band list for his summer festival in Abiquiú — Blossoms and Bones — by April, but the truth is he's juggling a lot of pies.
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This year, the group is bringing some big acts to the Lensic, including Neko Case (March 30), Chris Botti (April 4), Angel Olsen (April 15), and Sarah Jarosz (May 28), and Lenfestey says there still could be shows added at a later date.
"It's an exciting time in Santa Fe. I've been doing it for 32 years here now," he says of the local scene. "The first 10 years were a slog and a little slow. We had the Paolo Soleri Amphitheater, but other than a few legendary summer outdoor shows, there was really not all that much here. And then the Lensic helped change that when it opened in 2001. The market has grown; Santa Fe has grown, and it desires top level music. And artists really like coming here."
Later this year, Lensic 360 hopes to announce its first back-to-back concert engagement at the Santa Fe Opera, and Lenfestey wants to stage several shows there this winter. The spring season sees Lensic 360 working fervently on setting the local acts for the Summer Scene series.
Lenfestey and Franke have booked six shows at Albuquerque's KiMo Theater as of press time — including Rosanne Cash (February 13), Jimmie Vaughan (March 28), and Herb Alpert (March 29) — and Lenfestey says he looks forward to building that theater's reputation in its home city and beyond its borders.
"We did more shows at the KiMo in 2023 than probably any other promoter has ever done in a single year," he says of the theater, which opened in 1927 as a Pueblo Deco movie theater. "I'd really urge people who haven't been to Albuquerque to go check out a show at the KiMo sometime. It's very similar to the Lensic but incredibly different at the same time."
The crown jewel of the year — and one of the hardest things on the agenda — is launching the Blossoms and Bones Festival in cooperation with Ghost Ranch.
The festival has changed its name a few times, and last year it gained cache with a big headliner in Japanese Breakfast. The 2022 edition, he says, came together on short notice and brought acts like Patti Smith, Sharon Van Etten, the Indigo Girls, and Angel Olsen out to Abiquiú. This year, the Lensic 360 crew has more runway, but they're still a long way from being able to announce the bill.
"We have a lot of interest, and a lot of acts want to play, but getting the pieces to work together is very difficult and very, very expensive," Lenfestey says of setting the festival. "We've got some good leads and feelers out. I think people will be excited. We're excited to get it done, but yes, it's hard."
Lenfestey says ultimately his ambition is to build Blossoms and Bones into a nationally renowned festival, and he hopes to get concertgoers of all ages interested in both enjoying music and celebrating the place where Georgia O'Keeffe found her muse.
"We're getting together with the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum and Ghost Ranch to really expand on what we're building up there," he says. "Interestingly enough, 2024 is the 90th anniversary of Georgia O'Keeffe's first time visiting Ghost Ranch, so we're going to really celebrate the 90th anniversary with an eye toward building a 10-year arc to the 100th anniversary."