Noche de Nachos planned for today

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LAS CRUCES – Downtown will be the place to be this afternoon and into the evening.

First, the city’s annual Veterans Day Parade will start at 3 p.m. on the corner of Main Street and Lohman Avenue. This will be first parade in the modern era of Veterans Day Parades to have a theme: A Salute to Women Veterans.

Following the parade, residents are invited to stick around for Noche de Nachos, as the city attempts to set the record for world’s biggest nachos.

The plan is to take pounds of cheese, mountains of chile and truckloads of tortilla chips to create a 5,000-pound nachos plate, which would top the current record of 4,689 pounds of nachos, set in Lawrence, Kan.

Gates for Noche de Nachos will open at 5:30 p.m. at the Plaza de Las Cruces, with the nacho build starting at 5:30. The official weight announcement will be at 7:30. Entry costs are $15 for adults and children 12 and under get in for free.

The top three performers from the Las Cruces International Mariachi Conference Student Showcase Competition will perform at Noche de Nachos, along with the winning vocalist of the Elisa Gastellum Scholarship and two ballet folklórico dance groups. The evening’s headliner, Grupo Status, a 25-person musical group from Ciudad Juárez, will take the stage at 8:30 p.m.

The fiesta will also include dancers, local artisans, food trucks and nachos on the plaza, and will end at 10 p.m. There will be a screening of “Nacho Libre” at the Rio Grande Theatre at 3 p.m. Tickets to “Nacho Libre” are $5, or free with your Noche de Nachos ticket. Space is limited, and doors for the movie open at 2 p.m.

For information and to purchase tickets, visit www.DowntownLC.com. Tickets can also be purchased online at the Rio Grande Theatre and at Visit Las Cruces.