About the Utah Arts Festival

In 2010, the Festival will open its gates for the 34th time. What started out as the Salt Lake Festival of the Arts for three days in June of 1976 featuring 55 visual artists, 43 performing arts groups and 8 food artists on a three block section of Main Street has blossomed into a 4 day event, featuring 130+ visual artists, 100+ performing arts groups, 18+ culinary artists and drawing 80,000 patrons each June to Library and Washington Squares.

The Utah Arts Festival is the largest outdoor multi-disciplinary arts event in Utah. Having garnered numerous awards internationally, nationally and locally, the event remains one of the premiere events that kicks off the summer in Utah each June.

80,000 Patrons

More than 80,000 patrons enjoy four days of award-winning fine arts in the Artist Marketplace, live performances on five stages, local and international street theater, a short film festival, a fine arts exhibition and culinary delights. And that’s just the beginning! Children are fully immersed in the arts at the TARGET Art Yard where local nonprofits create hands-on projects; teenagers have an opportunity to explore their creative sides at the Urban Arts venue; and Artists At Work show cases the talents of local artist guilds as set up and create art on site.

Collaboration

The Festival also has a rich history of commissioning works and collaborating with arts organizations in the community. Since 1991, the Classical Composers Commission awards a local or national composer with a stipend to create a new work for symphony or chamber orchestra which premieres at the Festival. In conjunction with the Utah Symphony & Opera, the Festival has hosted a “Work in Progress” of Dream Keepers and most recently The Grapes of Wrath, a national collaboration between the Utah Symphony & Opera and the Minnesota Opera. In 2008, the Festival added two new commissions for jazz.

In the Nation

In 2009, the Utah Arts Festival was ranked 39 among the nation's top 100 festivals. The Festival is a member of the International Festival and Events Association, an organization with a roster of 2,000 members representing events in 29 countries. Since the year it joined, the Festival has garnered numerous awards, competing against the likes of such prestigious events as the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade, the Coconut Grove Arts Festival, Denver's Cherry Creek Arts Festival, the Kentucky Derby Festival, Houston International Festival, and the Portland Rose Festival.

It Takes People

It takes a staff of four, 60+ program coordinators, a technical staff of 30 to organize and execute the event. The Utah Arts Festival is exceedingly proud of the dedication of more than 1,000 volunteers from across the community who return year after year – some since the very beginning, to participate in putting on this award-winning event for the citizens of Utah.

Please explore our site to become a Utah Arts Festival participant--whether as a donor, sponsor, volunteer, artist, performer, or attendee.