Schedule 2026
This year’s Festival will take place between June 4 and 7. Unless otherwise noted, all events are free, though a few will require reservations based on limited space.
Please note: Seating at the Crowley Theater is free, but first-come, first-served, so please arrive on time to any events that interest you. We’ve never turned anyone away, and I don’t expect to this year, but please be prompt, just in case. Also, because people find viewing schedules online difficult, and I still like printing them, paper programs will be available at the Festival.
Several local restaurants and galleries will present events during Agave Festival, mostly inspired by the Festival but not always. Here are some of the businesses and organizations who will present events during the weekend: on view at Ballroom Marfa is “Raven Halfmoon: Flags of Our Mothers”; Cochineal will present special Agave Festival Dinners and a No Al Muro fundraiser, and more.
Thank you to Tim Crowley, Rob Crowley and The Crowley Theater; Meredith Dreiss and David O. Brown; Virginia Lebermann, Vance Knowles and Ballroom Marfa; Josh Shepherd and Marfa Spirit Co; Jim Fissel and Jim Martinez; Kate Shepherd and Miles Bellamy; Kathy and Okey Johnson; Liz Lambert; Caitlin Murray; Pedro Jimenez; James Reece; and Mishka Westell for their support of the Festival, and thank you for supporting local businesses during your visit. - Tim Johnson
thursday
June 4th
5:00 pM - 6:30 pM
crowley theater
98 south austin st
FREE
Chinati Foundation and Agave Festival Marfa present a talk on archeoastronomy in the Chihuahuan Desert by Yuri de la Rosa of INAH-Coahuila. De la Rosa is known for his extensive and illuminating research in remote regions of Coahuila, as well as his commitment to sharing the deep history of the Chihuahuan Desert through public talks, podcasts and radio interviews. Archeoastronomy is one of De la Rosa’s favorite subjects and this will be a very special event.
7:00 pM - 9:00 pM
crowley theater
98 south austin st
FREE
McDonald Observatory and Agave Festival Marfa present “Black Holes: The Edge of All We Know”. The film will be followed by a talk by special guest Karl Gebhardt, Professor and Herman and Joan Suit Professor in Astrophysics at University of Texas at Austin.
FRIday
June 5th
9:00 AM - 11:o0 aM
the block / la mansana de chinati
400 w el paso st
FREE
Judd Foundation presents Arroyo Sessions: Volunteers are invited for coffee and breakfast treats, followed by hands-on riparian restoration of neighboring Mimm’s Creek, including planting of native grasses, shrubs, and trees. Boots and protective clothing recommended.
9:00 AM - 11:o0 aM
CDRI
43869 TX-118
FREE but requires reservation
Join us for a hike at the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute, led by head gardener, Faith Hill. This is a fantastic opportunity to learn more about the bats and plants of the Chihuahuan Desert and to get to know one of our region’s best and most beautiful institutions, CDRI. Register here.
11:00 AM - 1:00 PM
crowley theater
98 south austin st
FREE
Pedro Jimenez of Mezonte and Pare de Sufrir introduces his latest film.
Followed by free Tamales at the Crowley Theater.
2:00 pM - 3:30 PM
crowley theater
98 south austin st
FREE
Mezcal Panel: legendary agricultural activist and mezcalera Sosima Olvera (Chontal Maya) of Fane Kanstini joins Diana Pinzón of Zinacatán, Francisco Terrazas and Pedro Jimenez of Mezonte to discuss ecological considerations in the production of traditional mezcales. One of this year’s subjects will be the use of water and wood in spirit production and the environmental solutions this requires.
4:00 pM - 5:15 PM
crowley theater
98 south austin st
FREE
Christina Hernandez (Lipan Apache) of the Big Bend Conservation Alliance will discuss their work.
6:00 pM - 7:15 PM
crowley theater
98 south austin st
FREE
Jazmine Ulloa will read from her celebrated book, “El Paso: Five Families and 100 Years of Blood, Migration, Race and Memory.” As the New York Times wrote in a recent rave review: “In El Paso, a compelling chronicle of the city, the journalist Jazmine Ulloa makes a case that, rather than a vestigial organ, El Paso is the heart not only of Texas, but of the American experience. El Paso is Spanish and Mexican, Indigenous and mestizo, Anglo and Arab, Chinese and German, white and Black — and, to borrow a phrase from Ulloa, “Blaxican.” The city, in her estimation, deserves to be acknowledged as another Ellis Island.”
El Paso is an extraordinary, can’t-look-away reported history; it uses deep research and dozens of new interviews to blow away the myth of this place, where Mexico’s Juarez and America’s El Paso intertwine. It charts the history of El Paso through five families. From the Mexican Revolution and the Mexican Repatriation, to the shifting immigration laws under Reagan and Trump and the violence and bloodshed brought on by the drug war, El Paso captures a place often misunderstood or forgotten by the rest of the country, and the world.
El Paso is a brave new work of narrative nonfiction that gives new voice and perspective to history that has long been checked at the border, or told through the lens of white men alone. Ulloa draws upon meticulous research and reporting and stunning historical detail to craft the intimate narratives of an unforgettable cast of characters.
FRIday
June 5th
8:00 pM - 10:00 PM
Bullroom
43326 Ranch road 1112
FREE
Marfa Spirit Co. and Agave Festival present Carrie Rodriguez, with special guest John Convertino (Giant Sand / Calexico). You can watch Carrie’s Tiny Desk Concert here. Rodriguez is the host of the experimental performance series Laboratorio, a musical exploration and celebration of Latino culture. Rodriguez is known for several outstanding albums as a solo artist and collaborations with John Doe (of X), Ruben Ramos, Chip Taylor, and Roberto Tejada.
Doors at 8pm. Thanks to Ballroom Marfa for their generous support of this event.
Friday evening events (independent)
various locations to be announced
in the near future - stay tuned!
Saturday
June 6th
9:00 AM - 11:o0 aM
CDRI
43869 TX-118
fully reserved
Join us for a hike at the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute, led by gardener and landscape designer, Jim Martinez. This is a fantastic opportunity to learn more about the plants of the Chihuahuan Desert and to get to know one of our region’s best and most beautiful institutions, CDRI. Register here.
9:00 AM - 11:o0 aM
chinati foundation
1 Cavalry row
FREE
Chinati Foundation presents Oscar Hagerman: Sillas de Mexico. Don’t miss this very special exhibition, which closes at the end of June. Hagerman is among the leading architects of his generation and is known for collaborative building projects in rural and indigenous communities throughout Mexico. This exhibition brings together a selection of chairs designed by Hagerman and produced in collaboration with Canto Artesanos, a design cooperative in Mexico City.
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
crowley theater
98 south austin st
FREE
Chinati Foundation and ISAD, Ciudad Chihuahua’s School of Architecture and Design, present a talk by Juan Manuel Casillas Pintor. Casillas Pintor is a celebrated architect, professor at Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City and community member of the groundbreaking institution UMA, the Universidad de Medio Ambiente in Valle de Bravo.
This conversation is part of a series of public programs presented in association with Oscar Hagerman: Sillas de Mexico, currently on view at the Chinati Foundation.
12:00 pM - 4:00 PM
cactus liquors
405 south highland
FREE
Liquor store and garden center, Cactus Liquors, presents an agave spirit tasting featuring tables of wonderful spirit makers and food provided by TacoNeta of El Paso
Saturday
June 6th
4:00 pM - 5:15 PM
crowley theater
98 south austin st
FREE
Raquel Gutierrez, author of “Brown Neon: Essays” returns to read from “Southwest Reconstruction” a new collection of poems, described as a disquieting journey through the uncharted dreamspace of memory and loss, expulsion and shelter, family and recognition. Enacting an eclectic range of forms and echoes drawn from the relational complexities that occupy the difficult terrains of unceded land; these are critical improvisations of creation and closures of the imperceptible sense of displacement, and the interconnecting routes that map the vastness of desire to belong. Divided into three sections, the vocal registers in Southwest Reconstruction act as the noisy divining rod for both kinship and ancestral communication; a sonic brown butch vernacular strumming notes out of sorrow and mettle. Written over the course of almost ten years in the Southern Arizona landscape, these poems function as a psychic Thomas Guide diving into the wreck of settler logics looming large in the rearview mirror of mestizaje and the mythological ruptures left in their wake.
6:00 pM - 7:15 PM
crowley theater
98 south austin st
FREE
David Stuart is one of the world’s leading archeologists and epigraphers. Beginning at an astonishingly early age and continuing to the present, Stuart has contributed significantly to deciphering Mayan hieroglyphic writing. Additionally, he has published widely on Mayan and Aztec archeology and is the director of the Mesoamerica Center in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Texas. Stuart will be reading from “The Four Heavens: A New History of the Ancient Maya”, his new book from Princeton University Press.
The Four Heavens brings to life the cultural and visual splendor of the ancient Maya, drawing on the oldest indigenous texts of the Americas and the latest archaeological discoveries to present an entirely new history of this spectacular civilization. Renowned historian and archaeologist David Stuart, who has made groundbreaking contributions to the decipherment of Maya hieroglyphics, shows how there was no single rise and fall of the Maya but a series of births and collapses over a breathtaking span of nearly three millennia.
9:00 pM - 11:00 PM
WILD MARE
306 East San antonio st
FREE
We’re excited to host the great Pima Express. For over two decades, Pima Express has been rocking the Southwest and bringing their blend of country, rock and chicken scratch (the popular dance music of the native peoples of southern Arizona). From the village of Bapchule, on the Gila River Reservation, Pima Express presents an evening at the Wild Mare in their own rocking style.
saturday evening events (independent)
various locations to be announced
in the near future - stay tuned!
sunday
JUNE 7th
11:00 aM - 12:15 PM
crowley theater
98 south austin st
FREE
Azul Arena, of Ciudad Juárez, and Agave Festival present the beautiful short film, “La Cienega”, directed by Ciela Avila Velasco and produced by Manuel Alberto Herrera Delgado. You can see the trailer here.
La Cienega tells the story of Don Efraín Delgado, the last member of a family line dedicated to the two most important cultural traditions of Temósachic, Chihuahua: the artisanal production of sotol and norteña music. At his ranch, “La Ciénega”—a place that seems suspended in time on the banks of the Papigochi River—he works to preserve the identity of his town, even in the face of the passage of time, migration, and cultural syncretism.
The film will be followed by a conversation about sotol and lechuguilla production led by sotoleros and lechuguilleros who work to keep this extraordinary tradition alive.
2:00 aM - 3:00 PM
crowley theater
98 south austin st
FREE
Chihuahua’s Festival de Arte Nuevo launch their latest ‘zine and discuss the scope of their cultural work, including discussion of collaborations with several of Marfa’s cultural institutions, including Club Nowhere and Maintenant, and projects around the state of Chihuahua.
4:00 aM - 5:30 PM
crowley theater
98 south austin st
FREE
Chihuahua’s Secretaria de Cultura presents the film, “La Mujer de Estrellas y Montañas” with a special pre-recorded introduction by the director, Santiago Esteinou.
La Mujer de Estrellas y Montañas tells the incredible and harrowing story of Rita Patiño, a Tarahumara woman who left her community in northern Mexico in the early 1980s and walked across the border all the way to Kansas. When the American authorities found her, she was arrested and forcefully committed to a psychiatric hospital for 12 years. Throughout this time, her identity and language were unknown to the medical authorities. Years later, and back in her hometown, the horrific episode continues to haunt Rita and her loved ones. This visually striking documentary is not to be missed.
You can see the trailer here.