Utah State Fairpark

The Utah State Fairpark & Event Center is 65 acres at 155 North 1000 West in Salt Lake City, ten minutes from downtown and right off I-80 and I-15. It is best known for the state fair each September, but the rest of the year the grounds host festivals, concerts, trade shows, galas, graduations and holiday markets. Kilby Block Party, Utah's largest music festival, has made the Fairpark its home each May.

Fat Fish Media produced the silent disco at Kilby Block Party 2025 inside one of the Fairpark buildings: a DJ stage, moving lights, lasers and a multi-channel wireless headphone system for the festival crowd. This guide covers what the grounds offer and what to plan for.

The spaces at a glance

• Grand Building: about 26,000 square feet on two floors with a total capacity of 2,400. The upper level has a 15-foot ceiling, chandeliers from the old Hotel Utah and the largest permanent wooden dance floor in Salt Lake; the lower level is one open room with 19-foot ceilings. Each floor seats about 600 to 750 for a banquet or 840 theater style.
• Promontory Hall: about 10,700 square feet for up to 1,000 guests, a good size for a trade show, a company party or a festival side stage.
• Bonneville and Zion buildings: smaller halls for 600 and 300 guests, useful for registration, VIP areas or breakouts.
• Days of '47 Arena: an outdoor arena with seating for about 10,000, used for rodeo, concerts and motorsports.
• Center Mall and grounds: the paved and grass areas between the buildings, where festivals put their main stages, vendors and food.

Producing a festival or concert on the grounds

The Fairpark's strength is space. There is room for multiple stages, a vendor village and parking, and the buildings give you weather-proof rooms for a silent disco, a sponsor lounge or an indoor stage. The trade-off is that the grounds are a blank canvas: you bring the stages, the roofs, the power distribution, the fencing and the lighting.

For an outdoor stage we use mobile stages with hydraulic roofs or a ground-supported roof system, line-array audio sized to the field, and LED screens for IMAG. Our mobile stages set up in a morning and carry a full lighting rig, which matters when you have several stages to open by noon.

Inside the historic buildings

The Grand Building is the room most clients ask about. The upper floor, with its wooden dance floor and chandeliers, suits a gala or a wedding-scale dinner; the lower floor is better for a stage show because of the taller ceiling and open entrances. Neither has a built-in rigging grid, so lighting and audio go on ground-supported truss and towers, and power comes from the building's distribution plus generators when the show calls for more.

For the Kilby silent disco we lit the hall with moving lights and lasers, built a DJ riser with inflatable scenic and ran multiple channels of wireless headphone audio so each channel could follow a different DJ. The result is a club inside a century-old exhibition hall, and it shows what the buildings can do with the right rig.

Load-in, power and logistics

• Access: trucks drive onto the grounds and up to the buildings, which makes load-in fast. Confirm gate times and vehicle routes with the Fairpark, since the grounds are shared when more than one event is on site.
• Power: building power is adequate for a dinner or a small stage; concerts and multi-stage festivals need generator power and a distribution plan, which we provide.
• Weather: spring and fall events need a weather hold plan. We agree wind limits for roofs and screens with the venue before doors.
• Neighbors: the Fairpark sits in a residential neighborhood, so sound curfews and stage orientation matter. We aim the PA and set limits at front of house.

What else we can bring

Beyond stages and audio, we handle lighting, LED video, generators, crowd barricade and camera coverage. Our broadcast trailer can record or stream a festival stage from the grounds. See our concert and festival work.

Frequently asked questions

Can you rent the Utah State Fairpark outside the state fair?

Yes. The Fairpark rents its buildings, the Days of '47 Arena and the grounds year-round for festivals, concerts, trade shows, galas and markets.

How many people fit in the Grand Building?

About 2,400 across two floors, with roughly 600 to 750 banquet seats or 840 theater seats per floor.

Does the Fairpark have power and rigging for a concert?

Building power covers dinners and small stages. Concerts and festivals bring generators, ground-supported truss and mobile stages, which we provide.

Planning an event at the Utah State Fairpark? Tell us the date, headcount and program and we will come back within one business day with a production plan and a line-item quote. We can also walk the space with you before you sign the venue contract.