Better Off Dead: Noche de los Muertos Returns to Rockledge in Manitou Springs

As the days get shorter and the nights get darker and longer, it is time to celebrate all things fall at the 13th Annual Noche de Los Muertos festival in early November.

Hosted by Smokebrush Foundation for the Arts, Noche celebrates all the tradition, entertainment and pageantry of a Day of the Dead Festival but is held at night, enhancing the fun while reuniting the living with the dead.

Held this year at the historic Rockledge Inn in Manitou Springs, this traditional Mexican cultural holiday evening will spotlight Latin dance performances with a symbolic skeleton burning ceremony to honor the dearly departed, face painting, fortune tellers, and other revelry set against the backdrop of stunning visuals and Latin Gypsy music.

“We will be performing some old Latin classic music as well as Latin Fusion,” says Adriana Rincon, general manager of the Smokebrush Foundation.

In Mexico, Day of the Dead is an important holiday that honors deceased loved ones. The celebration is held from October 31 to November 7 coinciding with the Catholic feast days of All Saints and All Souls. The festival's origins are rooted in a unique combination of elements drawn from indigenous beliefs and Catholic teachings. Attendees are invited to bring a memento of your special someone to add to the Ofrenda as well as dress up in Day of the Dead costumes and make up.

“Noche de los Muertos is an annual event which began in 2011 and has been hosted by the Smokebrush Foundation, Ryan Flores and me for more than a decade," says Rincon.

Both Rincon and Flores are also founding members from the band Moonhoney, who will be playing during the evening.

"Noche was actually the brain-child of Flores to honor his Mexican grandmother who had recently passed away, and he wanted to honor her and his family roots in this way,” Rincon said. “At the time of the celebration, we recognize that the veil between our world and the next is much thinner and this is the best time of year for this kind of celebration."

Over time the slightly macabre celebration has evolved, adding some new ideas and practices, ultimately transcending its origins to evolve into the truly Mexican holiday that is celebrated today as Día de los Muertos.

"Now Noche has a rotating group of musicians and dancers who have performed in different years," Rincon explains. "This year we are paring the celebration down to make it smaller and more exclusive, having the entire grand room at Rockledge decorated in a magical, colorful and celebratory mood. We will also include a casual dinner prepared by local Hispanic chefs."

One reason that these celebrations are so popular in Southern Colorado is that the Hispanic/Latino population in Colorado Springs has grown significantly and now represents almost twenty percent of the city's total population, making it the largest minority group in the city. And the Fort Carson military community reflects this diversity with a twenty-two percent Hispanic population. Much of the Hispanic community in the region originates from Mexico.

Established in 1992 by visionary Kat Tudor, the Smokebrush Foundation for the Arts strives to foster creativity and collaboration in the Southern Colorado community, sponsoring numerous public art projects, events, and installations.

Initially headquartered in an old downtown church on Nevada Avenue that Tudor turned into a theater, the foundation acquired the first performing rights of the script to the dramatic play "Marvin's Room," producing the first theatrical production in America. Her dream of a non-profit arts center was up and running.

"The goal of Smokebrush has always been to promote artistic excellence among the community, individual artists and arts organizations," Tudor explains. "At out our headquarters at historic Red Crags in Manitou Springs, we operate a multi-purpose production facility for artists and healing artists to collaborate on projects, and workshops such as body painting and en plein air painting, as well as theatrical and other live performances, and ceremonies such as Noche." Other classes include belly dancing and yoga as well as artists-in-residence programs.

In 2001, Tudor and her husband Bob designed and created the Uncle Wilber Fountain, one of the most sophisticated fountains in the country. The installation helped to transform downtown's Acacia Park into a lively venue for families, delighting children for almost twenty-five years. "The fountain has brought lots of joy to many families and I'm always happy when I'm there and often think about ‘Uncle’ Wilber who was the principle at the Deaf and Blind School, and inspiration for the fountain," Tudor said.

Another major upcoming event produced by Smokebrush is the one-of-a-kind event Haunted Harvest being held at the Rockledge Ranch mansion in Manitou Springs. Scary ghost stories will be told, glow-in-the-dark painting will invade the senses, and Tudor will perform original haiku in a specially created haunted house room. "My daughter Anna will be the guest chef, creating a menu using unusual organic ingredients harvested at the biodynamic Smokebrush Farm, where guests can savor these delights grown under the glow of moonlight and where haunted pumpkins and scary scarecrows abound," she said.

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