Festivals & Celebrations

Utah Valley does not have one big festival; it has a calendar, and the calendar is the point. Every city of any size runs its own celebration week on roughly the same dates every year, built on the same bones — a parade down the main street, a rodeo or a carnival in the park, a night of fireworks, a pancake breakfast somebody's Rotary club has run since the seventies — and once you know the sequence you can plan a summer around it. June belongs to Pleasant Grove, Lehi and Springville. The Fourth belongs to Provo, with Orem's living-history festival tucked beside it. Late July is Spanish Fork and American Fork; August is the small cities, one after another; Labor Day weekend somehow fits three festivals into two days. Then the farms take October, and the light walks take the dark months. The valley's festival page at the visitors' bureau lists twenty of these, June through September. This one lists 88, all year, each with a guide written by someone who went.

Two things about how we write these. First, the dates: each guide states the last instance we verified and links the city, and the finder below shows next year's dates only where a city has published them, marking everything else as an estimate. Second, the honesty: the guides say which events are free and which are ticketed, which rodeo sells out and which does not, where the parade actually starts, and which "festival" is a Saturday in a park. That is what the aggregators cannot do and the cities will not.

The hub now reaches past Utah County. The same calendar logic carries north into Salt Lake and Davis counties, where the big-city celebrations, the Days of ’47 and the state fair sit, east to Wasatch County’s fair and Swiss Days, and south to Juab and Sanpete. Every guide below carries its county, and the filter above the list narrows it to one.

The finder

Pick a month, a city, or a requirement — a rodeo, a parade, fireworks, free — and the Festival & Celebration Finder filters all 88 rows and counts down to the next one. Next up: Orem Tour of Frights in Orem, October 15, 2026. For what is on this week rather than this year, use this weekend.

The year, month by month

Every guide

71 guides sit under this hub: the evergreen page for each celebration, the small-city roundup, the holiday circuits, and the dated posts from the years we covered a festival as news.

On the calendar by county: Utah · Salt Lake · Davis · Wasatch · Juab.

From the Wire

Dated coverage of festivals as they happened; the evergreen guide for each is above.

• Utah Valley Events: Your Guide to August and Labor Day 2026 July 8, 2026
• Fourth of July in Provo 2026: An Hour-by-Hour Guide to the Big Day June 20, 2026

New this month

The most recently written or updated guides under this hub, by their last edit.

• Butlerville Days From Utah Valley: Cottonwood Heights' Mid-July Festival, Its Evening Parade and the Night Sky Show updated October 12, 2026
• The Days of '47 From Utah Valley: The Parade, the Rodeo and a Pioneer Day Trip to Salt Lake City updated October 12, 2026
• The Living Traditions Festival From Utah Valley: Salt Lake's Free Folk Festival, and Why Families Should Make the Trip updated October 12, 2026
• Midvale Harvest Days From Utah Valley: A Tradition Since 1938, the 2026 Heat Cancellation and the Fall Make-Up Date updated October 12, 2026
• Riverton Town Days From Utah Valley: A Rodeo in June, a Parade on the Third and Fireworks on the Fourth updated October 12, 2026
• SoJo Summerfest From Utah Valley: South Jordan's Kickoff to Summer, and Its Fireworks in the Drone-Show Era updated October 12, 2026

Frequently asked

What is the biggest festival in Utah Valley?

By attendance, America's Freedom Festival in Provo, which runs for two weeks up to the Fourth of July and includes the Grand Parade, the Balloon Fest and Stadium of Fire. By reputation among locals, the rodeo weeks: Strawberry Days, Lehi Round-Up, Fiesta Days and Orchard Days. Festival Latinoamericano is the biggest free festival in Provo itself.

When is festival season?

Two waves. June and July belong to the rodeo weeks and the Fourth; August belongs to the small cities, one after another on the same weeks every year — the small-city circuit explains the sequence. Labor Day weekend brings Golden Onion Days, Festival Latinoamericano and Swiss Days at once; then the farms take October and the light walks take the dark months. The Tulip Festival in April opens the year.

Which festivals have a rodeo?

Strawberry Days, Lehi Round-Up, Fiesta Days, Orchard Days, Alpine Days, Pony Express Days and the Utah County Fair. The rodeo is usually the one ticketed event inside a free week, and the Strawberry Days and Alpine Days rodeos sell out early. The finder has a rodeo filter.

Are the city celebrations free?

Most of the week is; the rodeo and the carnival rides are the ticketed parts. Stadium of Fire, Luminaria, the Tulip Festival, Cornbelly's and the World Folkfest are ticketed throughout.

How do I know this year's dates are right?

Each guide states the last dates we verified and links the organizer. The finder shows next year's dates only where a city has published them and otherwise marks its estimate as expected. Aggregators roll last year's weekend forward without checking; we would rather say "expected" than be confidently wrong.

What happens on Pioneer Day?

July 24 is a state holiday and the valley's version is scattered: Fiesta Days ends on it with the valley's biggest 24th parade, Steel Days surrounds it, and Salt Lake's Days of '47 is the big-city version an hour north. Pioneer Day, explained covers why the day can feel bigger than the Fourth.