Latino Arts Festival coming to Park City

PARK CITY — The Latino Arts Festival is returning for its seventh year in Park City — this time with a newer and bigger venue.

The free festival will be held June 16-18 at Canyons Village at Park City Mountain and will feature dozens of visual artists, food, live music and dance, poetry, film and workshops. Artists will also be displaying and selling their original artwork and creative goods, ranging from paintings and weavings to clothing and leather work.

Andrea Zavala, with the Arts Council of Park City and Summit County, hopes the festival will highlight Park City's growing Latino community, which makes up 15% of the city's population.

"We haven't been able to really share with our community all the things that we can bring," she said. "It's important because, you know, my kids go to school, we work in Park City, we interact with other people from different cultural backgrounds, but it's always this limited idea of of who we are."

For those willing to get their hands a little dirty, the festival will also include a kids' craft tent, a poetry tent and a wellness tent. Local artist Clara Amezcua will be creating a larger-than-life, 6-foot-tall Alebrije — a brightly colored fantastic creature that represents a classic style of Mexican folk art. The sculpture will be an interactive piece throughout the festival, with opportunities for participants to paint and add paper onto it.

Zavala said she hopes festivalgoers — both Latino and others — will find a greater appreciation of the diversity within Latin American cultures as they interact with each other and cultures through art and storytelling.

"I think it's important for everybody, not just for white people, but everyone in general just to learn about all of us," she said. "Because I'm from Ecuador, but people from Chile are different, people from Brazil are different. Just to have the sense that we can all share together and be in the same place."

A handful of events will also be held leading up to the festival:

• Music and Film night on June 13, 7-10:30 p.m., at City Park. The free event will feature live music from Eligio Garcia Magic Harp and a screening of the Sundance Film Festival's "Going Varsity in Mariachi."
• Jim Santy Auditorium is holding a free screening of "Pelé: Birth of a Legend" with Spanish subtitles on June 14 at 7 p.m.
• "Cena en el Jardín," or dinner in the garden, will feature fresh food provided by local Latino chefs, live Bossa Nova music by Pedrinho Souza, kids' craft activities and craft cocktails provided by Don Julio. Dinner tickets are $50 for adults and $25 for kids. The event is June 15, 5-7 p.m. at Summit Community Gardens.
• The Utah Symphony and Utah Opera are hosting a pop-up performance featuring soprano Jasmine Rodriguez and pianist Nicholas Maughan on June 17, 3:30-4:30 p.m. at Kimball Junction Transit Center.

More information, including a full schedule of events, performers and artists, is available on the arts council's website.

Related topics