2025 Before I Die New Mexico Festival Schedule

by | Sep 3, 2025 | Before I Die Festival

Fair and Festival art

The evolving 2025 Before I Die New Mexico Festival schedule is now available. Mark your calendars for Monday, October 13, 2025 (a Federal holiday), from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the First Unitarian Universalist Church campus, 3701 Carlisle Blvd. NE, Albuquerque, NM. This is the schedule as of October 8, 2025.

10:00 a.m. to noon Panel Discussion on Plant Medicine and Psychedelic Therapy for grief and death anxiety – Sanctuary, available on Zoom and online after the Festival. Participants include:

  • Kelly Butterman, Verdes Cannabis
  • Lida Fatemi, MD, hospice and palliative care practicing physician & psychedelic educator
  • Lori Healy, RN, UNM Health Sciences Program, psychedelic-assisted therapy study
  • Doug Lynam, Entheogen Guide & Retreat Facilitator
  • Moderator, Danielle Slupesky, Death Doula, Conscious Crossroads End of Life Services

Visit with Decriminalize Psychedelics New Mexico in the lobby after the panel discussion.

10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Death is Not a Dirty Word Resource Fair – in the Social Hall

Peruse vendor tables sharing a wide range of information on end-of-life products and services: green burial, death doulas, estate planning, hospice, caregiver resources, grief care, and more!

10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Sponsor Tables and Meet the Panelists – Sanctuary Lobby

Visit with Festival sponsors French Funerals & Cremations, Passages International, Bosque Trails Hospice, End of Life Options New Mexico, and Decriminalize Psychedelics New Mexico, as well as the panelists from the three sessions on Plant Medicine and Psychedelic Therapy, Dying in New Mexico: Options and Choices, and the OMI and Bernalillo County Indigent Program.

10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Axios Consulting – Social Hall Glass Room

Meet Justin Rigg with Axios Consulting, an organization that helps people access medical aid in dying through DIGNITAS in Switzerland.

11:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Community Hospice for Modern Living – Social Hall Library

The speaker is Whitt Perez-Wright with Scott’s House in Santa Fe, a community hospice and respite house.

Noon to 2:00 p.m. Death Café discussion – Arnold Room

Join a conversation to talk about what’s on your heart or mind about mortality issues.

12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Panel Discussion on Dying in New Mexico: Options and Choices – Sanctuary, available on Zoom and online after the Festival. Panelists include:

  • Nancy Abell, Clinical Outreach and Education, End of Life Options New Mexico
  • Leah Becker, PA and Lynn Nauman, MD, Rights of Passage
  • Katelynn Martin, Owner/Administrator, High Desert Hospice
  • Jane Westbrook, End of Life Educator & Advocate, The Art of Living, Aging & Dying Well
  • Moderator, Neil Weinberg

This session will end with Gail Rubin reprising her TEDxABQ talk about death and Medical Aid in Dying at 2:15 p.m.

12:30 p.m. to 1:15 p.m. Why Estate Planning is a MUST This Year – Social Hall Library

Feliz MariSol Martone, Attorney at Law, discusses estate planning issues.

1:30 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. Hospice is More than Healthcare – Social Hall Library

Featuring speaker Norman Roque with Enchanted Sky Hospice.

2:30 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. The Gift of Preparation: Health, Heart, and Wealth – Social Hall Library

Join Brooke Nutting, Death Doula, CPA, CFE; Sharon Hutson, MS, CT, End-of-Life Doula; and Justin Welch, Senior Client Associate, RBC Wealth Management, for this important conversation.

3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Panel Discussion with OMI & Bernalillo County Indigent Program – Sanctuary, available on Zoom and online after the Festival. Panelists include:

  • Chamar Valdez, Operations Manager, Bernalillo County Indigent Program
  • La Vonda Bowens-Woodard, Director of Operations, Office of the Medical Investigator
  • Aaron Warcza, French Funerals & Cremations
  • Moderator, Gail Rubin, CT, A Good Goodbye

3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Music by ABQ Skeleton Crew – in the Courtyard

Finish the day with an upbeat concert and dance party with this seven-member band which features luscious harmonies and an eclectic repertoire of tunes.

Before I Die Festival Wind Phone

Wind Phone

All Day: Wind Phones in Memorial Hall/Outdoor Garden/Courtyard Plaza

Following the 2011 Tōhoku tsunami in Japan, Itaru Sasaki created a Wind Phone for survivors to talk “across the wind” with their beloved deceased. Since Sasaki’s first Wind Phone, there are now over 324 Wind Phones in the US as well as Wind Phones in 139 countries. Before I Die offers two Wind Phones for attendees to reach out to their loved ones—whether two legged, four legged, or winged.

Also in the Memorial Hall, there will be a table of books about funerals and death, free for the taking, as well as information about end-of-life related events coming up in Albuquerque.

Mortality Movies curtainsAll Day: Mortality Movies TV series showings – Wesson Room

Continuous showings of 30-minute episodes of the Mortality Movies television series. Death educator Gail Rubin shows clips from films and TV shows and discusses lessons we can learn from these videos with two death and grief educators on set.

Free registration includes 10 raffle tickets for fun prizes at the Resource Fair and follow-up panel discussion video links. Food options will be available for purchase on-site.

You can register to Zoom the panel discussions for free. Use this link: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ib0JSuQWQ4ey173E2KW0cw.

Paid registration adds bonuses:

  • $20 provides a list of Mortality Movies that Gail Rubin, The Doyenne of Death, recommends you watch.
  • $40 gets you a copy of the book, A Good Goodbye: Funeral Planning for Those Who Don’t Plan to Die.
  • $60 adds a black T-shirt with a snappy death quote (available in M-L-XL-XXL).
  • $80 adds a copy of The Newly-Dead® Game.
  • $100 adds the opportunity to enjoy a Death Over Dinner and Mortality Movie Night with Gail Rubin.

Register for the Festival and Fair here: https://beforeidiefestivals.com/product/2025-before-i-die-festival-and-fair-registration/

Thank You to Our Before I Die Festival Sponsors

2025 Sponsor logos

The 2025 Before I Die New Mexico Festival is made possible with the support of these organizations.