Blue Man Salt Lake

Cover Story Utah Arts Festival 2011

Like many 35-year-olds, the Utah Arts Festival is considerably larger than its younger self. And—again, like most 35-year-olds—it’s far more interesting than the younger version, having lived a little and ultimately benefited from some growing pains.

When the festival started in 1977, evolving out of the Salt Lake City Festival of the Arts, it was a three-day gathering on three blocks of Main Street, boasting 55 visual artists, 43 performing groups and eight food stands. It cost about $38,000. Now, it’s a four-day, $1.6 million monster drawing more than 80,000 to Washington Square and Library Square, showcasing more than 140 artists, 100 live performances and 20 culinary visionaries. It takes more than 1,000 volunteers to pull off, plus four full-time staffers, 60 program coordinators and a production staff of 30.

In between its Main Street start and current location, the festival bounced through a site on West Temple near the Salt Lake Art Center, the Triad Center area, the Utah State Fairpark (aka “the lost years”) and the Gallivan Center.

The festival’s executive director, Lisa Sewell, remembers visiting the Utah Arts Fest for the first time in 1983, having recently moved home to Utah after college in Oregon.

“I was trying to find a job, figure out what I was going to do, and I distinctly remember sitting on that slope (outside the Salt Lake Art Center) with hair down to my ass, and I was wearing this long white dress with embroidery on it,” Sewell says. “And I remember thinking what a great thing it was. Who’da thunk 15 years later I’d be the director of it?”

My own first memories of the fest start as a college student at the U in the early ’90s, when I had no time for visual arts but loved seeing concerts by the likes of Laurie Anderson (1991), Jimmie Dale Gilmore (1994) and Mahlathini & the Mahotella Queens (1992), a South African group that inspired my house full of college dudes to start greeting each other for the rest of the summer with an African howdy: “Ya-bo!”

In the years since, my tastes have grown more eclectic, as have the offerings of the festival. Art, music, food, film—I like to sample as much as possible during those four days each June. Here’s a look at 35 aspects of the 2011 festival on my to-do list.

Zions Bank Broadway Across America Utah Announces the 2011-2012 ...

Is best known for their wildly popular theatrical shows and concerts, which combine comedy, music, and technology to produce a totally unique form of entertainment.

The New York Times heralds the show as “One of the most delightful performance pieces ever staged.” E! Entertainment News exclaims, “Blue Man Group is what every live performance aspires to be.” Although impossible to describe, people of all ages agree that Blue Man Group is an intensely exciting and wildly outrageous show that leaves the entire audience in a blissful, euphoric state.

With no spoken language, Blue Man Group is perfect for people of all ages, languages, and cultures. This fall, Blue Man Group takes to the road on its first U.S. theatrical tour and arrives in Salt Lake City this holiday season. This unique experience is a form of entertainment like nothing else; guaranteed to be an outing you will never forget!

is based on the 2008 Tony Award® winning Lincoln Center Theater production, directed by Bartlett Sher. Set on a tropical island during World War II, the musical tells the sweeping romantic story of two couples and how their happiness is threatened by the realities of war and by their own prejudices. The beloved score’s songs include “Some Enchanted Evening,” “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair,” “This Nearly Was Mine” and “There is Nothin’ Like a Dame.” USA Today cheers, “Four Stars! Gorgeous! , the smash hit Broadway musical, is returning to Salt Lake City! Based on the Academy Award-winning animated feature film, this eye-popping spectacle has won the hearts of over 35 million people worldwide. This classic musical love story is filled with unforgettable characters, lavish sets and costumes, and dazzling production numbers including “Be Our Guest” and the beloved title song. Experience the romance and enchantment of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast! Disney’s Beauty and the Beast is the classic story of Belle, a young woman in a provincial town, is the smash hit Broadway musical, inspired by the true story of the famed recording session that brought together rock ‘n’ roll icons Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins for the first and only time. On December 4, 1956, these four young musicians were gathered together by Sam Phillips, the “Father of Rock ‘n’ Roll” at Sun Records in Memphis for what would be one of the greatest jam sessions of all time. Long before that girl from Kansas arrives in Munchkinland, two girls meet in the land of OZ. One — born with emerald green skin — is smart, fiery and misunderstood. The other is beautiful, ambitious and very popular. How these two grow to become the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch makes for “the most complete, and completely satisfying, new musical in a long time.

The Great Salt Lake trail

The automobile blue book

Salt Lake slaughter

United States destroyer operations in World War II.

Boyd's blue book, a directory from selected streets of Philadelphia and surroundings