Western Playland season opener on Saturday in Sunland Park

SUNLAND PARK, New Mexico (KVIA) -- On Saturday, Western Playland will open up for the first time after being bought out by Traders Village. For 60 years, Western Playland had been run by a family, and passed down through the generations. Now, the new owner is hoping to improve the long-time, family run amusement park.

According to recent Western Playland social media posts, the newly renovated park will offer "more rides, more food, more music, and more fun."

One of the noticeable changes to the park is that "you can see the whole middle of the park has been landscaped and leveled out. We are looking at a couple options for rides. It's a big purchase, theres a lot of thought. We are looking at the community, what's going to fit here," said Lee Ann Murray, who is the Marketing Director for Traders Village.

Murray didn't say exactly what types of rides they are looking into, but that it will be "what we call our large ride our destination ride, the ones that amusement park enthusiasts will come here and report on."

For food, Traders Village will be expanding the current menu options.

"A lot of the food stands that will be opening- we're going to have a lot of different stuff. Agua frescas, turkey legs a lot of people were asking for, funnel cakes. We're going to have a lot of Hispanic food which we thought we were lacking, and were also going to do more carts little snacks, shaved ice peppered throughout [the park]," Murray explained.

Traders Village is hoping to bring more live music to the park as well. On March 9, DJ Johnny Kage is scheduled to spin the turntables at Western Playland, and local band Fungi Mungle is scheduled to play at the park on August 5. Murray told ABC-7 that local acts can audition to play at the park too.

"We're constantly having new talent. We have a lot of house bands that we use in the other markets, so typically we'll have larger events, and then especially in the summer we have a live music series, and we'd love for people to audition for that. Send us [your] videos, and eventually we'd like to have a house band like in our other markets," said Murray.

If you want to be one of the first guests to visit the updated park, you can attend the Western Playland Ribbon Cutting on Saturday at 2 P.M.. Ticket prices range from $5 for general admission to $27.65 for wristbands and access to all of the rides. For more information, click here.