New arena opens door for rodeo, monster trucks and more at Utah State Fair

Rodeo is back at the Utah State Fair, thanks to a new 10,000-seat outdoor arena on the Fairpark grounds.

The new Days of ’47 Arena “opens up the door for a lot of opportunities, for a lot of different events,” said Jeff Kooring, director of sales and marketing for the Utah State Fair Corporation, which runs the Fairpark and the fair, whose 162nd edition opens Thursday and runs through Sept. 17.

The Utah’s Own PRCA Rodeo, running Sept. 8-10, is one of five events slated for the arena during the fair’s 11-day run. Also on the schedule: the Utah Horse Pullers Association’s draft horse competition on Sept. 12, a concert by the country-pop duo LoCash on Sept. 13, the “Day of Wreck-oning” demolition derby on Sept. 16, and a monster-truck show on Sept. 17.

“Just having that new arena causes a lot of enthusiasm,” Kooring said.

Upper-bowl tickets for the rodeo, and all tickets for the draft-horse pulls, are free with gate admission. (Rodeo tickets must be obtained in advance through the fair’s website, utahstatefair.com.) Tickets for LoCash, the demolition derby and the monster-truck show are also on sale at the fair’s website and include gate admission.

The fair may not book the national acts that it lured in its heyday two decades ago — like when a just-rising Britney Spears played the grandstand in 1999. Back then, Kooring notes, the fair didn’t have venues like Usana Amphitheatre or the Maverik Center as competition, and Red Butte Garden’s summer concert series was a much smaller affair.

Kooring recalled talk three years ago, when rain over nine of the fair’s 11 days dampened attendance, of closing or moving the fair. Now, he said, “the corner definitely has been turned.”

Other entertainment slated for the fair, all included in gate admission, includes:

• The Big Top Circus Spectacular, an old-style one-ring circus under a tent, headlined by stovepipe-haired clown and daredevil Bello Nock, onetime star of the Big Apple Circus and Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

• The return of the West Coast Lumberjack Show, with ax throwing, log rolling and pole climbing.

• The Xpogo Stunt Team, pro athletes performing extreme-sports moves on pogo sticks.

• The Rock Bottom Boys, a three-member band playing “rock ’n’ roll with hillbilly soul.”

• Alex Clark, a comedian and juggler with nearly a million YouTube subscribers.

• Jared Sherlock, comic magician and illusionist.

• Dale K, with his comedy hypnosis show.

The fair also offers the traditional array of carnival rides, arts exhibits, performances, deep-fried foods, farm animals, agricultural demonstrations and vendor booths.

“It’s crazy time now. Everybody’s under the gun,” Kooring said as fair organizers prepared for the event. “That freight train that’s coming down the track, and it’s not stopping. You need to be ready for it, and we are.”