When it began in 1991, the Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta was a modest, one-day event featuring 20 restaurants and 20 wineries.

Now, more than 30 years later, the annual festival has mushroomed into a five-day, multidimensional gathering that includes 80 wineries and 65 restaurants, and attracts 4,500 guests.

That degree of buy-in from the local business community separates the Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta from similar events elsewhere in the country, according to Executive Director Mary Hallahan.

“To me, that’s one of the things that makes us most unique,” she said. “Getting that much local participation is really unique.”

The increasingly popular event has had an economic impact of nearly $8 million in recent years, a new study found, and is cited by local business leaders as one of th

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