Gallivan construction moves Twilight series to Pioneer Park

SALT LAKE CITY — A hotbed for crime on the city's west side, Pioneer Park for years has been a place most avoid after dark.

This summer, however, Salt Lake City leaders expect thousands to come for Twilight.

With its longtime home, the Gallivan Center, undergoing an $8 million makeover this summer, the Twilight Concert Series is moving to Pioneer Park, and city officials say it will be a chance for people to experience the ongoing revitalization of an often disregarded neighborhood.

"There are some perception issues, and that's the only thing we have to overcome," said Casey Jarman, who organizes the free Thursday night concerts for the Salt Lake Arts Council. "I can't say what the audience numbers are going to be this year. Once you come down to the first show, I think you're going to see this is a great, great area."

The park is a daytime hangout for a number of the city's homeless, and police installed cameras there last year to help curb rampant drug activity.

But the park is home to a popular weekend farmers market, and officials hope the park could one day be an anchor for a year-round public market.

A summertime film series and other activities have helped spring up condominiums, apartments and upscale restaurants around the park's edges.

"Twenty years ago, that place was very different than it is today," said Jason Mathis, executive director of the Downtown Alliance. "You've seen, over the last two decades, major improvements in that neighborhood because people started coming in for major events."

Twilight should help in those continued revitalization efforts, officials said.

"We haven't completed the transformation of that neighborhood, but there's been so much money invested there recently," said Salt Lake City Councilman Luke Garrott, who represents the city's downtown district. "There are going to be a lot of people coming down to Twilight that don't regularly go to Pioneer Park. … It will be a good opportunity to showcase that. But we can't fool ourselves: (The area) still has a lot of challenges."

Jarman selected Pioneer Park over other alternatives, such as Library Square, because the park could accommodate a temporary stage on its northwest corner for the entire two-month run from July 8 to Aug. 26.

The spacious park, he said, also leaves room for the concert series to grow.