67 Best Performing Arts in Utah, USA

This immense, stately venue across from Temple Square is famed for its soaring glass lobby and Dale Chihuly sculpture and is home of the Utah Symphony and other distinguished events like the Wasatch Speaker Series featuring names such as Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Rob Reiner, and Annie Leibovitz.

This respected professional ballet company performs both classic and original works at the Capitol Theatre. Its inner-workings were featured in the multiseason reality show Breaking Pointe.

This grand 1913 theater with a stunningly ornate exterior was built originally for vaudeville and has been masterfully restored. It presents works by Ballet West and the Utah Opera in addition to hosting the JazzSLC series and Broadway touring companies.

Everything from Utah Symphony performances to country music features on stage. Big name stars like Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, Chris Isaak, and Judy Collins have graced the outdoor amphitheater, which sits on the resort's beginner ski area.

Go on Wednesday evening for free concerts with local and regional bands, and pack a picnic.

This European-style theater, with ornate balconies, murals, and frescoes, was built in 1923 and restored to its original grandeur in 1993. Cache Valley Center for the Arts brings about a dozen national touring productions here each year, including musicals, dance, comedy, and concerts.

Every Memorial Day weekend, artists from across the West gather at Moab's Swanny City Park to show their wares, including pottery, photography, and paintings. This fun, free festival is small enough to be manageable and sells a variety of affordable artworks and crafts. Expect lots of food, plus activities for the kids. Most days have live music and local theater on two stages.

Some of America's top folk artists converge in Moab each November to perform on indoor and outdoor stages. Past artists have included Richard Thompson, Shawn Colvin, Bruce Cockburn, Loudon Wainwright III, and Ferron.

This nonprofit organization books dozens of local, regional, and national musical acts in the Park City area, using many different venues around town, including the ski resorts and Main Street. No matter what show you go to, you're likely to see every age group represented and enjoying the music. Most performances are free.

Celebrating visual and culinary art, this three-day festival, held the first weekend in August, is the biggest summer event in town. More than 200 artists from all over North America exhibit and offer their work to 40,000 festival attendees. Culinary vendors and beer and wine gardens offer plenty of refreshment to art lovers, and live music is around every corner.

Built in the 1920s but then abandoned for many years, this restored art deco jewel with a working Wurlitzer pipe organ received a splendid restoration in 1997 and now hosts concerts ranging from world music to blues, jazz, and country acts, as well as an ongoing film series and touring musicals.

The resident company of the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center stages modest productions built on fine original scripts and timely social and cultural themes.

For 10 days each January, movie stars, film executives, and independent film lovers gather in a mountain setting for the Sundance Film Festival, hosted by Robert Redford's Sundance Institute. It's a chance to view the screenings of new, risk-taking documentaries, features, and other creative film projects from around the globe. Moviegoers can also participate in Q&A conversations with filmmakers, producers, and creatives after screenings. Participants can add their names to a waiting list even if shows are sold out. The festival is held at many venues in Park City, Sundance, Ogden, and downtown Salt Lake City, and there are music and culinary events as well.

Book your hotel months in advance. Skip the rental car and use the free shuttle. Park City's legendary ski slopes empty out while the filmgoers attend the screenings, so build in a day of crowd-free skiing.

Movie buffs and casual fans will find much to love about Robert Redford's Sundance Film Festival. Each January, the crowds and the paparazzi tend to congregate in Park City, but savvy (and budget-conscious) moviegoers catch top picks in six venues in Salt Lake City: the Tower Theatre, Broadway Center Cinemas 3 and 6, the Grand Theater, Salt Lake City Main Library, and Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center. Ticket registration begins in September, but procrastinators can check for unsold day-of-show tickets at the Trolley Square box office.

At this magnificent outdoor amphitheater nestled in a natural red-sandstone cove, you can watch touring Broadway musicals and concerts by noted pop artists.

Over the fourth weekend in June, Salt Lake City's premier art event takes place over two full blocks downtown surrounding both Library and Washington Squares. Browse original art at the Marketplace, create your own masterpiece at the Art Yard, treat your taste buds to a food truck–sponsored feast, and get down to live music on multiple stages.

Each summer this highly respected company presents a five-week season at Logan's Utah Theatre, Ellen Eccles Theatre, and the Dasante Building. Featuring nationally renowned performers from across the country, the productions dazzle.

Since 1962, Cedar City has been Bard-crazy, staging productions of Shakespeare's plays from mid-June through mid-October in three Southern Utah University campus theaters, the largest of which is an open-air replica of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. The Tony award–winning festival that has featured Jeremy Irons, Ty Burrell, and Bradley Whitford over the years also presents literary seminars, backstage tours, cabarets showcasing festival actors, and an outdoor pre-show with Elizabethan performers. Try to book well in advance, as many performances sell out.

The premier orchestra in the state, the Utah Symphony performs in the acoustically acclaimed Abravanel Hall and calls the Deer Valley Music Festival its summer home.

Each June and July, the America's Freedom Festival combines a series of patriotic activities and contests. The event peaks with a hot-air balloon festival, the state's biggest Independence Day parade, and fireworks at BYU's 65,000-seat LaVell Edwards Stadium, dubbed the Stadium of Fire.

Every September you can see traditional Ute ceremonial dances at the Bear Dance. The dance takes place during a four-day celebration held Labor Day weekend on the Ute Reservation. The Ute Mountain powwow and dance represent the end of summer and the impending hibernation of the bear.

A growing local artist community shows off its talent during this annual festival in mid-October. Each year features a different theme and touts four days of artist receptions, lectures, and workshops, along with the Bluff Film Festival.

Colorful hot-air balloons—some from as far away as England—take to the skies over the Valley of the Gods and the town of Bluff during this mid-January festival, held during the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. Attend the "glow in" if weather allows, and see balloons illuminated against the night sky by the flame from the propane heaters that fill them with hot air. Bring warm clothing and expect crisp, clear weather.

Enjoy craft beer and tasty pub fare while you watch the new releases and indie films at this intimate cinema in the Granary District.

Salt Lake Film Society shows newly released, independent, and foreign films at this hugely popular downtown venue.

Most performances at BYU are held in this center, which houses a concert hall, recital hall, and three theaters. The ticket office is on the third floor, near the south entrance, and is open weekdays 9--5; there's another ticket office on the north side of the Marriott Center, ground level, with more convenient parking.

Cowboys come to the Old Spanish Trail Arena (just south of Moab) for three days in late May or early June to try their luck on thrashing bulls and broncs at this annual Western tradition.

For several days in early to mid-July each year, Vernal celebrates the town's Western heritage with the Dinosaur Roundup Rodeo. Various rodeo events, dances, and parades on Main Street celebrate the real-life cowboys who wear cowboy boots because they're practical, not because they're fashionable. Try and buy your tickets directly from the rodeo itself, as third-party vendors often sell tickets that are overpriced and fraudulent. 

If you find yourself at Goulding's Lodge in the evening, you can take in films that explore the natural natural beauty of the area, followed by a nightly John Wayne movie.