SAN ANTONIO - The numbers haven’t been crunched yet, but if the 15th annual Festival of the Cranes wasn’t the biggest and best ever, it was very close.

Local artist and musician John Keisling is directing and acting in the Socorro Community Theater’s play for the Festival of the Cranes.

SOCORRO -- Mayor Ravi Bhasker likes to see different color license plates on cars, vans and recreation vehicles, especially those toodling down Socorro’s main drag.

He likes plates that read “Beehive State,” “Empire State,” “Colorful Colorado,” or “Big Sky Country.”

SOCORRO - “It’s the colors of the rainbow,” said Rain Cronce, age 4, a preschooler at the Socorro Cooperative Nursery School and one of 151 winners in the Festival of the Cranes poster contest.
Crone, daughter of Mike and Dani Cronce of Polvadera, was describing the eagle she colored that earned her a blue ribbon. It was almost patriotic - white, blue, red - but also green and pink.

If the weather holds through the weekend, it looks like it will be one of the best Festivals. The light geese and sandhill cranes arrived early this year, due to a cold snap in the San Luis Valley.