Concerts & Events in West Valley City

Expose your pupils and ear canals to an impressive 10-hour lineup of mainstream country acts performing across multiple stages. Headlined by the platinum-album-selling, award-winning Montgomery Gentry, Country Throwdown also plays host to up-and-coming acts such as Ashley Ray, an ex-cheerleader with a guitar pick in one hand and a beer in the other, on the Blue Bird Café Stage. To pregame for the festival, view the full stage-by-stage set list here and enjoy a free seven-song Country Throwdown Tour digital sampler here. To fully immerse yourself, check out the Country Throwdown iPhone app.

With multiple performance areas set up throughout the picturesque park, this year's Salt Lake City Jazz Festival trumpets in an impressive lineup of jazz acts tuned to a variety of tastes. Sheila E. and The E Family take to the stage Friday night, plucking their signature sound from a family tree dripping with virtuosos. Performers such as Pete Christlieb and Linda Small tickle ears without invading personal space, and The Orbit Group mingles jazz, hip-hop, and the unique sound of a snowflake hitting the earth to form its inimitable style.

Challenge Nation pioneered the urban-adventure race with a race season that includes visits to 35 cities across the country. Each scavenger hunt is personalized to the hosting city, exploring its many diverse neighborhoods with a series of clues that would test even the most skilled children's-book detective. The teams—comprised of at least two people—vie for a $300 first-place prize. The _Amazing Race_–style competition rewards quick wits and wise planning over physical fitness, so the best way to prepare is by doing logic puzzles while eating Funyuns and lounging in a La-Z-Boy. The top 25 teams qualify, the top five receiving free entry, to compete in the national championship, which rewards winning teams with a $5,000 cash prize.

Visitors to the Utah Arts Festival stride across concrete promenades and grassy lawns sprawled out between fountains and modern buildings, which have glass walls that reflect the fest’s vibrant paintings and eclectic sculptures. Since its inception more than 35 years ago, the four-day festival has taken over a multiblock radius to accommodate hundreds of visual artists, musicians, performers, and culinary artists, each celebrating modern art and the local community. Throughout indoor and outdoor exhibitions, visitors explore varied works of visual art represented through special exhibitions and hands-on workshops with featured artists. A marketplace also gives artists a place to sell their paintings, wearable art, and sculptures to help disseminate their crafts and raise enough money for van Gogh’s ghost to move out of their basements.

Musicians score the festival throughout its days with worldwide genres on several outdoor stages, and storytellers and other literary artists tickle ears with eclectic tales and recitations of the UN staff directory. Across the grounds, festival staffers recycle the fete’s discarded plastic, aluminum, and cardboard as well as food scraps and vegetable oil, and promote eco-friendly practices with a protected bicycle lot and bike valet.