Release the Goats: How a Landscaping Fix Became Goatchella

By Austin Curtis
Visuals by Tori De Anda and Diane Joy Schmidt

Release the goats!

When the rambunctious two-horned creatures rolled out of the truck, they did not exactly make a quiet entrance. One after another, the energetic goats sprung into the enclosed back lot at Congregation Albert, where they immediately chomped on weeds, tumbleweeds, brush and trash trees.

What began in 2024 as a low-budget fix for an overgrown patch of land at the synagogue has grown into a program called Goatchella, an annual family-friendly festival that includes goats, live music, food, face painting, bingo, and brings the community together. This year’s Goatchella drew hundreds of people from across the Albuquerque area and beyond, transforming a one-time landscaping problem into one of the congregation’s most distinctive traditions. 

Congregation Albert Executive Director Daniele Williams said the idea for Goatchella grew out of necessity. The congregation needed a way to clear its property, and goats offered a cheaper and more entertaining option than hiring a landscaping crew.

The goats got lunch, and the congregation had a landscaping solution.

“We had massive overgrowth of weeds and tumbleweeds and trash trees on the backside of our property,” Williams said. “We could pay a landscaper or groundskeeper to come out and address all this, or we could get goats.”

Williams said she remembered she had seen goats used in similar settings before and thought the idea was worth trying, especially if it also gave people something fun to watch.

“I figured it would also be a fun event for people to just come see the goats as they are doing their thing,” she said. “People loved it. The people who were there were so excited about it.”

The first year drew about 30 to 40 attendees while the goats were out feasting on the grounds. Donations from members covered the cost. The following year, Williams expanded the event, adding a tent to give people shelter from the June heat and bringing in live music and food. 

The crowds soon grew to between 100 and 150 people, and this year the tent was about twice as large. The congregation provided its own music, and the sisterhood handled merchandise.

“Because of those donations and because of people’s generosity and excitement about it, I’m able to rent a much larger tent,” Williams said.

The goats themselves, unsurprisingly, remain the main attraction. 

“When I say, ‘I’m renting goats,’ the reaction is always disbelief or laughter,” she said. “People get giggly.”

The animals are interactive, too. Attendees can get close to the goats, feed them branches and watch them work through the brush.

“It’s interactive. It’s great for little kids,” Williams said.

Senior Rabbi Celia Surget, who joined Congregation Albert in 2021, said the event had grown from a practical solution into something much bigger.

“What originally started was we needed this area weeded has turned into an opportunity to bring the community together, not for a religious event, not for fundraising, just for fun,” Celia said. “People are happy, people are joyous.”

Each year, Surget said, the event has grown more ambitious, with more people, more activity and more effort behind the scenes.

“Last year, we did something a bit bigger, it was a huge success, so this year we said, ‘Let’s just go full on and have fun,’” she said.

For Surget, the real value is the connection the event creates.

“As long as people are happy with it and are willing to sponsor it, that’s the beauty of it,” she said. “The community came together to make it happen. The fact we get to go around and pet the goats and play with them, it’s great.”

At Goatchella, that sense of community includes children, parents, longtime members and first-time visitors.

Five-year-old Jonah Flynn said the goats were easy to love.

“I like petting them,” he said. “They’re so fuzzy.”

His mother, Maria, said Goatchella offered a chance to experience a part of the community they had not visited before.

“It’s nice interacting with different people,” she said. “We’ve never been here before, so it’s nice to see a different part of the community and socialize.”

Fourteen-year-old Patrick Martin, a student at Eisenhower Middle School, said his “nanna” told him about the event, and he was glad he came.

“It’s cool how they made water bottles at the gift shop with faces of goats on them,” he said.

Beyond the animals, the event also featured Rabbi Micah Citrin, who joined Congregation Albert just 6 months ago, and the congregation singers. They provided live music with 1960s and ’70s rock songs from Simon and Garfunkel, Neil Diamond, Harry Chapin and the Eagles, along with catchy Jewish songs meant to get the crowd singing along. 

Under the tent, attendees quickly bought up this year’s original Shaaalom! goat swag and t-shirts at the Sisterhood table.

They then moved on to munching on the Brotherhood’s hot dogs, chips and drank sodas while the goats kept doing their work outside.

Williams said that mix of laughter, music and community is exactly what Goatchella is supposed to feel like.

“It’s the joy,” she said. “It’s kids enjoying themselves. It’s the families enjoying themselves.”

The goats cleared the land, the music filled the air, and the crowds keep growing each year.

For Congregation Albert, Goatchella once again provided another successful event bringing the community together while the goats lowered the brush.

Austin Curtis, 18, a student at Cornell University majoring in American Studies with a minor in International Relations, this summer is a freelance sports writer for the Albuquerque Journal and a feature writer for the NM Jewish Journal.

Tori De Anda, 20, a student at the University of New Mexico with a double major in Political Science and Journalism (multi-media), is doing community engagement multi-media work for the NM Jewish Journal.

A recent direct charitable gift from the David Specter Shalom House Board to the NM Jewish Journal has made it possible to add their services. A portion of that gift will fund a new NM Jewish Journal Donor Advised Fund at the Jewish Community Foundation of NM, and the balance will reside at the New Mexico Community Foundation, our 501c3 fiscal sponsor.

Diane Joy Schmidt, who also contributed visuals to this piece, is the founding publisher and editor of the New Mexico Jewish Journal.

Community Supporters of the NM Jewish Journal include:
Jewish Community Foundation of New Mexico
Congregation Albert
Jewish Community Center of Greater Albuquerque
The Institute for Tolerance Studies
Jewish Federation of El Paso and Las Cruces
Temple Beth Shalom
Congregation B'nai Israel
Shabbat with Friends: Recapturing Together the Joy of Shabbat
New Mexico Jewish Historical Society

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