Los Lunas Route 66 Kickoff Brings Students, Community Together Saturday

More than 40 local vendors, two school bands, and a student-built E-Sports arena packed a closed stretch of Luna Avenue on Saturday as Los Lunas launched its first Route 66 Kickoff Celebration, transforming the village's annual student art show into a full community street fair tied to the highway's 100th anniversary.

The Village of Los Lunas closed Luna Avenue from Main Street to Santa Fe Avenue for the event, centering festivities at the Los Lunas Museum of Heritage & Arts at 251 Main St. Los Lunas Middle School and High School bands performed alongside dance team routines, and attendees could browse a book fair, scale a rock-climbing wall, visit arts and crafts stations, or stop at a car show that students themselves proposed as an addition to the original program.

The celebration grew from a smaller student art show that Los Lunas Middle School history teacher Terrie Chavez has organized with the museum over the years. Chavez described the expansion as a way to deepen community ties to the schools and give students a public stage for their accomplishments. Students not only contributed artwork to the museum displays but drove programming decisions: both the car show and the E-Sports area were student-generated ideas that organizers incorporated into the schedule.

Museum director Louis Huning Jr. confirmed the street closure and described Saturday's event as the official start of the village's Route 66 centennial programming. Huning, whose father Louis Huning Sr. served as Los Lunas mayor for nearly three decades, has worked to expand the museum's community reach since stepping into the director role.

The centennial carries particular weight in Los Lunas. The village sits on the original 1926-1937 Route 66 alignment, the historic corridor that ran south from Albuquerque through the Rio Grande Valley, turned west along Main Street, and continued through Valencia County before the route was realigned in 1937. Route 66's numeric designation was officially assigned on November 11, 1926, making 2026 the centennial year for a road that once stretched 2,400 miles from Chicago to Los Angeles.

Saturday's event drew community resource organizations alongside vendors, giving families access to civic services alongside food, art, and live entertainment. For Los Lunas Schools, the scale of the gathering, with bands, dance teams, student government, ROTC, and yearbook programs all represented, marks the first time a school-museum collaboration has expanded to street-fair proportions.

Village and school organizers have positioned the kickoff as the anchor event for a broader centennial season, one aimed at drawing visitors from across Valencia County and restoring some recognition to the Mother Road's local stretch, which has gone largely uncelebrated since the highway was rerouted nearly nine decades ago.