THE UTAH ARTS FESTIVAL: BIGGEST, BRIGHTEST, BEST

About 85,000 Utahns are anticipating their return to Salt Lake City's Triad Center for the 16th annual Utah Arts Festival, June 24-28. This year they will be able to spread out onto Delta Center terraces as well, and into Festi-Live!, a performance stage tucked inside a corner of the center.

"The site is the news," said festival director Linda Bonar. "The Delta Center has been enormously helpful, beginning in June when they slowed down construction so we could hold the festival relatively undisturbed. Larry Miller has commended the festival for the spirit it brings to the community and says he welcomes us to what now looks like a permanent location."The festival takes shape annually almost like magic. Its public amenities are staffed, and then it disappears with little fanfare - an amazing feat of logistic organization, thanks to some 20 coordinators and more than 1,000 volunteers, and in-kind and cash contributions. Actually, gate receipts cover only about half the expense of the festival, with donors (including the National Endowment for the Arts) picking up the rest, said Bonar.

Utah's biggest and longest arts festival will feature the best of Utah and regional visual and performing artists, led by five national performing headliners, including 1992 Grammy winner Mary-Chapin Carpenter.

She will be on the Plaza Stage at 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday. Carpenter received her Grammy for "the best vocal performance, country, female," though she says "I'm most comfortable saying I play acoustic guitar - and I front a rock-and-roll band."

DanceBrazil (Amphitheater Friday at 10 p.m.) is a high-energy ensemble that fuses African and Brazilian cultures, including Candomble ritual dances of the African gods of Brazil. Their choreographer/director is Jelon Vieira.

Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens take over the Plaza Stage on Saturday at 10:30 p.m. Having performed for more than 30 years in their native South Africa, the dancers and singers represent a cultural melting pot of traditional rhythms and street music, backed by "mgqashiyo," the indestructible beat.

Pamela Z comes from San Francisco to perform Saturday at 9 p.m. on the Delta Center Stage. "Z" records her voice on a digital delay, so she can accompany herself, and she improvises freely in an exciting, electric style.

Charles Brown with his inimitable brand of rhythm and blues piano, vocal style with a smattering of gospel, and original songs, will be on the Amphitheater Stage Saturday at 10 p.m. This contemporary of Nat King Cole has been a major influence in blues.