Arts fest to remain on Main

Park City's mayor and City Council are backing a deal to ensure that the Kimball Arts Festival — the city's biggest summer event — remains on Main Street for as many as 10 more years.

"The Kimball Arts Festival is an iconic event in Park City," said Alison Butz, project manager in the city's special-events department. "We want it to stay where people identify it with today: Main Street."

The festival has been a staple of Main Street summers for 37 years, and city officials are weeks away from signing a contract with the festival's organizers. In May, the City Council unanimously approved an agreement for the festival to remain on Main Street from 2007 to 2011, with an additional five-year option until 2016.

Minor details remain to be negotiated before both parties sign the long-term contract, such as whether to extend the festival from its current two-day run to three days, making it a Friday, Saturday and Sunday event.

Last year, there were rumblings that the festival might move to another location in the Park City area. But both the city and arts center voiced their determination Tuesday to keep the festival in Park City's center.

With an attendance of 42,000 people during the 2006 festival, it is the city's largest event in the summer and the second-largest event for the entire year, behind the Sundance Film Festival.

"We have built a very successful arts festival here in Park City," said Pam Crowe-Weisberg, executive director of the Kimball Arts Center. "It's historically been on Main Street, and that's where it should be."

The festival is the primary fund-raiser for the nonprofit arts center, which uses the money to run its free gallery and host educational programs.

Park City Mayor Dana Williams last year voiced his concern for using public tax dollars for a nonprofit group's fund-raiser when the city has limited funds for nonprofits.

However, Butz said there are no more concerns of that nature. The city now has long-term contracts for its three biggest events: Sundance, Kimball Arts Festival and the Triple Crown Girls Fast Pitch Softball tournament, also a summer event.

The purpose of the contracts was "to make sure these events that are key to our economy, that they stay and the city stays as an active participant," Butz said.

The Kimball Arts Festival contract calls for the city to provide in-kind services for the run of the festival, such as buses and extra policing.

A University of Utah study showed that the 2006 festival generated $6.4 million for the local economy, Crowe-Weisberg said. The festival is increasing in attendance each year.

This year's festival will be Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 4 and 5, and admission costs $5 for one day and $8 for two days.

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