Late summer is a magical time as it blends into fall, and this year it’s also a particularly delicious time with the addition of six food-centric festivals for Utahns to experience.
These six events — the Utah State Fair, the Greek Festival, SLC VegFest, Festa Italiana, Oktoberfest and Mid-Autumn Festival — each have their own traditional activities and happenings, but they also stick out because they all have their own food. And if you’re unfamiliar with one of these festivals, what better way to truly experience it than by tasting its traditional eats and drinks?
Many of these festivals are free to attend, and all of them feature either Utah food businesses or locally made food. So get out there this September and October and taste something new.
Utah State Fair
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Evie Collier, 2, from Saratoga Springs eats ice cream at the all you can eat Ice Cream Festival at the Utah State Fair Monday, Sept. 9, 2019.
Come for the rides but stay for the numerous food options and food goings-on at the Utah State Fair, starting Thursday and running through Sept. 15 at the Utah State Fairpark at 155 N. 1000 West, Salt Lake City.
On Thursday through Saturday, participate in the “Fair Food” Fight, where fair food vendors will compete for the title of 2024 Fair Food Champion in either the sweet or savory category. Fair attendees can go to each participating booth and use a $5 ticket to purchase a mini version of that booth’s featured food, then vote for their favorite food in each category. The winners will be announced Sunday, Sept. 8.
On Monday, Sept. 9, bring your sweet tooth to the Ice Cream Festival, which will be happening in the Market Building, in the southwest corner of the Fairpark, from 3 to 7 p.m. Utah ice cream makers will be providing attendees with all the ice cream they can eat for $5.
On Friday, Sept. 13, come hungry for the Utah Beef Council’s Beef Feast, where grill masters will be cooking up beef tenderloin steak sandwiches until they run out of meat. Located in the Market building, the feast starts at 11 a.m., but you’ll want to get there early to beat the line, said Jamie Burns, food and beverage manager at the Utah State Fairpark. For $12, you can get a sandwich and a bag of chips. Add a drink for $2 more, and remember, it’s all cash only.
As for local food vendors, new this year are J. Dawgs and FiiZ Drinks. Also participating are The Pie, Thai Rex, Leatherbys Family Creamery, Chile Verde, Mr. Charlie’s Chicken, Jugos y Tortas, Lux Hospitality Group, Corn Stars, Prime Corn, Delicius, JC Tasty Hawaiian, SnoMobile, Juanitos Sweets Trailer and Patrick Shallow Concessions.
Tickets to the Utah State Fair are $10 in advance, $15 day of the event, $10 for seniors age 62 and over and children 6-12. For more information, visit UtahStateFair.com.
Greek Festival
Salt Lake City’s Greek Orthodox community has been busy cooking for this year’s Greek Festival since May, said festival chairman George Karahalios, and from Friday through Sept. 8, you can come taste the many fruits of their labors.
Held at the Holy Trinity Cathedral, at 279 S. 300 West in downtown Salt Lake City, and in the lot north of the church, the 48th annual Greek Festival is happening Friday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; and Sunday, Sept. 8, from noon to 9 p.m.
The festival is a huge feast, and the food will be sold à la carte in buffet lines where you can just point to what you’d like to eat and volunteers will dish you up.
Some of the many savory foods available to purchase will be gyros (the most popular item at the festival, Karahalios said), chicken and pork souvlaki (meat skewers), spanakopita (spinach and feta cheese pie), lemon rice, keftethes (meatballs topped with tomato sauce), pastichio (something like Greek lasagna), fasolakia (green beans stewed in tomato sauce) and much more. There will also be a lamb booth, where you can buy lamb roasted on a spit.
And there will be an entire pastry section, with such treats as baklava, kouluria (sweet butter cookie), melomakarona (spice cookie dipped in honey syrup, topped with nuts) and much more.
Admission to the Greek Festival is $5 per person, and children under 5 are free. For more information, visit SaltLakeGreekFestival.com.
SLC VegFest
The eighth annual SLC VegFest will be held Saturday, Sept. 14, from noon to 8 p.m. in Library Square, at 200 East and 400 South in Salt Lake City.
Organized and put on by the Utah Animal Rights Coalition, SLC VegFest is meant to “normalize a vegan diet and spread plant-based eating across Salt Lake City and greater Utah,” said Cody Gillette, who’s a Utah Animal Rights Coalition board member. “We just want to show people that you don’t really have to lose anything when it comes to food when switching to a vegan diet.”
Several food businesses will be at the event (some aren’t 100% vegan, but they’ll only have a vegan menu at VegFest), including: Kacey’s Cookies, Lattini, Eats, Monkeywrench, Sweet V, Raw Eddy’s Snacks, The Sunshine Sauce, Cru Kombucha, Polar Beverages, Delicius, Jollofology, Vegan Daddy Meats, Brazilian Paradise, Vertical Diner, Prime Corn, Trolley Wing Co., Namash Swahili Cuisine, Lucky Slice Pizza, Falafel Tree and Huckleberry Grill. There will also be a beer garden that will be hosted by Handle Bar.
The Utah Animal Rights Coalition will be highlighting several animal sanctuaries as well, in the hopes of getting people involved. For more information about this free event, visit SLCVeg.com.
Festa Italiana
During Festa Italiana, which is slated for Sept. 14 and 15 at The Gateway, “we want to make you feel like you’re walking down the streets of Italy,” said Chris Lorenzon, who’s co-managing marketing and promotions for the event, as well as co-managing all the food vendors.
Put on by the Italian-American Civic League of Utah, the free street festival is in its ninth year and will be going on from noon to 10 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 14, and from noon to 7 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 15.
More than a dozen Italian food businesses from Utah will be serving food in stalls along Rio Grande Street in The Gateway, including Bacio d’Italia, Da Ramalli Pizzeria, Antica Roma, Granato’s, Per Noi Trattoria, Sicilia Mia/Antica Sicilia, Sapori Italian Bakery & Cafe, Bartolo’s, Fratelli Ristorante, Mastra Italian Bakery, Pizzeria Tasso, Pinguino’s Gelato and Matteo Ristorante Italiano, which is new to Festa Italiana this year.
The festival grounds will stretch from 50 North to just past 100 South, “expanding quite a bit from years past,” Lorenzon said. There will be three bars open to attendees, one at the north end of the festival, one at the south and one in the middle, serving beer and wine (including lambrusco, a sweet, bubbly, before-dinner wine), as well as bellinis and aperol spritzes. Nonalcoholic beverages will be available, too.
For more information about activities and entertainment, which includes live bands and a car show, visit FestaItalianaSLC.com.
Oktoberfest
(Snowbasin Resort) SnowWiesn at Snowbird Resort.
Among the Oktoberfest celebrations Utahns have to choose from this year is one at Snowbird, up Little Cottonwood Canyon, and one at Snowbasin Resort in Huntsville.
Snowbird’s free festival will be happening through Oct. 13, every Saturday and Sunday, along with Labor Day, from noon to 6 p.m. Snowbasin’s SnowWiesn will be held every Saturday and Sunday through Oct. 6, from noon to 6 p.m.
The German folk festival has been happening at Snowbird for more than 50 years, said resort spokesperson Sarah Sherman, “and we’ve really always prided ourselves in having a lot of really traditional food and drink options,” she said.
This year brings to Snowbird a new executive chef, Ben Mogren, who comes from a family with a lot of German heritage, Sherman said. He has revamped the menu to include several traditional recipes; for example, the bratwurst recipe has been in Mogren’s family for multiple generations.
Snowbird has a handful of Oktoberfest dining spots, depending on what you’re in the mood for. Find traditional Bavarian fare such as schnitzel and rinderrippen (smoked short rib) in The Oktoberfest Halle. Classic American eats like burgers and chicken tenders are on the menu in the Birdfeeder. Snowbird also has more than 50 types of beer on hand for Oktoberfest, including a fall Oktoberfest ale served with whipped cream on top.
On Friday, Snowbird is holding a special Brewer’s Dinner at The Summit on Hidden Peak that will feature a meal paired with beers from Ogden Beer Company.
Visit Snowbird.com for complete menus and more information.
Earl’s Lodge, at the base of Snowbasin, is open for Oktoberfest, and there’s also a grill set up on the plaza, said Snowbasin executive chef Ben Little. This year, local butcher Tooele Valley Meats is making Snowbasin its own traditional German knackwurst, Little said. The sausage is a mix of veal and pork, garlic and warm spices that’s then smoked over oak; Snowbasin is serving theirs on a brioche bun with caramelized onions, whole grain mustard and sauerkraut, Little said.
At the carving station in Earl’s Lodge, Snowbasin is serving a traditional sauerbraten, which is a marinated roast that’s regarded as the national dish of Germany, Little said. It’s braised in vinegar, ginger, beef stock and spices until it’s fork-tender, he said, and then it’s carved in front of diners and layered with Emmentaler cheese, juniper peppercorn aioli, and a cabbage and Brussels sprouts slaw, all served on a Franz pumpernickel roll. Schnitzel and giant Bavarian pretzels will also be available.
Snowbird also has a bar with cocktails set up on the plaza for Oktoberfest, and has partnered with several local breweries to provide beer for the event.
Tickets are $11-$21 for adults, and $6-$11 for children 5-12. For more information about Snowbasin’s Oktoberfest, visit Snowbasin.com.
Mid-Autumn Festival
If you’ve never heard of Mid-Autumn Festival, it’s widely celebrated across East Asia but especially China around the harvest moon — this year, the festival falls on Sept. 17.
According to Time magazine, in China, people celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival with their families by gazing at the moon and giving mooncakes to one another.
Mooncakes are round (like the full moon), ornate cakes stuffed with ingredients like traditional salted egg yolk and lotus seed paste, or more contemporary fillings like ice cream, according to Time.
In Salt Lake City, you can find mooncakes at Xiao Bao Bao, a dumpling shop at 216 E. 500 South. Pastry chef Romina Rasmussen has made a batch with a red bean filling, and she plans to make some with lotus seed paste. The cakes are $4.50 to $6.50 each, depending on the filling and whether they have a salted duck egg yolk inside. The cakes, which will come in different sizes and shapes to accommodate the different fillings, will be in stock until Mid-Autumn Festival.
You can also find mooncakes at 85C Bakery Cafe in the Chinatown Supermarket at 3390 S. State St. in South Salt Lake, as well as at H Mart, at 1442 W. 9000 South in West Jordan.
The Vietnamese-American Community of Utah is throwing a celebration for what they call Tết Trung Thu in the Big Field Pavilion at Sugar House Park on Saturday, starting at 4 p.m. There will be traditional lion dances, a lantern parade, mooncake tasting, children’s activities and more.
The Salt Lake County Library will be holding a gathering for Mid-Autumn Festival on Sept. 18 from 6 to 9 p.m., at the Viridian Event Center at 8030 S. 1825 West in West Jordan. There will be food trucks, mooncakes, lion dances, lantern crafts and more.