Utah State Fair

The 2013 grandstand concert line-up included top performers: Plain White T's, Amy Grant, American Pickers, Love and Theft, Bridgit Mendler, 38 Special, Caleb Chapman's Crescent Superband with special guest Poncho Sanchez, The Texaco Country Showdown State Finals, Kahuna Beach Party and Ramón Ayala.

This year the entertainment will feature: Paul Bunyan Lumberjack Show, The Great American Duck Race, Wizards Challenge, Randy Cabral, Freddy Fusion and Lokalgrown.

The gazebo will host entertainment from: Randy Cabral and Freddy Fusion Science Magic Show (Sept. 5th-15th), Cross Strung (Sept. 5th), County Red (Sept. 6th), Eric Dodge (Sept. 7th), The Hollering Pines (Sept. 8th), The Linfords (Sept. 9), Kindle Creek (Sept. 10) and Lokalgrown (Sept. 11th-16th).

Visitors cannot bring any vehicles like bicycles, motorcycles, roller-skates, roller blades, scooters, skateboards or golf carts without written permission from the Fairpark management.

To keep the atmosphere friendly and safe for everyone, organizers reserve the right to remove from the Fair area any person who uses abusive language or behavior, wears offensive clothing, and is strongly intoxicated.

With the high rugged Rocky Mountains on the east and miles of unfriendly, hot, dry desert and salt flats on the west, most of these early explorers and settlers found the climate and land an inhospitable environment in which to settle.

Following the murder of Joseph Smith in Nauvoo, Illinois, Brigham Young lead the Mormon pioneers across the plains and west of the United States borders where they could live with religious freedom and establish their homes.

The major instrument for implementing this policy was the Deseret Agricultural and Manufacturing (D.A.M) Society, incorporated by an act of Territorial Legislature on January 17, 1856.

In the LDS Church General Conference, a semi-annual meeting of the LDS Church, following the incorporation of the Society; an entire session was devoted to a reading of the act of an "agricultural sermon" explaining the Society's plans and purpose to "promote the arts of domestic industry and to encourage the production of articles from the native elements in Utah Territory."

The basement of the Deseret Store, displayed agriculture products including, "large hens from Land's End England."

Other items displayed were cheese, butter, table cutlery, a sword and scabbard, bushels of cocoons, specimens of raw silk and bales of cotton.

Although there isn't any mention of a carnival atmosphere such as the current midway rides, arena events, or games; it is recorded that on the second day of the Fair a "spirited plowing match came off, in one of the governor's fields adjacent to the city."

For a number of years, teams of members made annual visits to each ward and stake to plead the cause of the Society and advertise the fair.

Most of them were invariably held to coincide with the October LDS General Conference, thus making the annual fall an excursion to serve, "both God and Mammon."

The diplomas awarded for prize exhibits in each field contained the religious symbol, the "All-seeing Eye," with the inscription, "Holiness to the Lord."

The members listed the mineral resources and gathered agricultural statistics for the territory, worked on reclamation projects that attracted the attention of the entire civilized world, and encouraged progress in the arts and sciences.

It was for the growth of the Territorial industry that the Society imported seeds, trees, and plants from as far away as Batavia, Japan, and other foreign countries.

The Territory made regular apportioned to the Society for a variety of purposes, including the subsidizing of certain industries, such as wool growing and sent a representative as early as 1869 to the Eastern States to select breeds of sheep for importation.

The records from the 1863 Fair show this interest from the following awards; "Best boar, ornamental basket, ladies' straw hat, best work table, picture frame, pair of woolen hose, bull 4 years old, patch-work quilt, best bread, sample cotton, door lock, mare colt, six brooms, six carrots, red cabbages, best map of Utah, best collection garden seeds, best shoe laces, best white gooseberries, best acre of flax, best Enfield rifle, best plaid flannel, best brown mare, best gross matches, best shoe blacking, two weaver's reeds, best sample soap, best early peaches, best quart turpentine, best peck potatoes, best penmanship, 2 ewes, ornamental needle work, best fall pear, best verbena, best phlox, best butter, best sign painting, best Jersey, best baby chair, best sweet potato, best cotton gingham, best 100 pounds flour."

Show animals could not be exhibited inside and were tethered outdoors to hitching posts and fence rails surrounding the hall.

The Legislature of that year appointed a new board of twelve members and made a liberal appropriation for improvements and premium awards; though the fair of 1888 was listed as "an unqualified success."

It continued to be a testimony to hard work and the fruitfulness of the soil, but it lost its religious significance and it was no longer viewed as a means of promoting self-sufficiency.

Utah's agricultural system had evolved from a local market and was no longer geographically, socially or culturally isolated from the rest of the country.

Although the exhibits were described as meager, the public showed keen interest and eagerly sought space to display some of the finest products from their own homes, shops, and fields.

The first fairs were held in several locations including the Deseret Store and Tithing Office where Hotel Utah now renamed The Joseph Smith Building was constructed, a site on State Street at 200 South known as "Market Row", 100 South and West Temple, and the "Tenth Ward Square", where Trolley Square now stands.

It is one of the most beautiful buildings on the Fairpark, featuring a combination of early Mission Style and Beaux Arts, it is no exception to the outstanding work of Ware and Treganza.

The Horticulture Building was renamed "Promontory Hall" in 1977 and it is still used to display exhibits during the annual State Fair and plays host to many other trade shows, concerts, and events throughout the year like many of the other treasured facilities at the Fairpark.

Candy apples in a row
The U.S. Navy Band Southwest, the Destroyers, performing at the State Fair in conjunction with Utah Navy Week
Flag of Utah