These 8 Utah Towns Have The Most Unique Festivals

Utah may be known for its stunning landscapes and pioneer history, but it’s also home to the most unique festivals, proving that the Beehive State knows how to have fun. From the rugged beauty of the Wasatch Mountains to the iconic Great Salt Lake, Utah’s towns have more than just stunning views—they've got a flair for celebrating the unexpected. These festivals, rooted in everything from ancient traditions to the oddball whims of locals, reflect Utah’s unique mix of cultures and outdoor adventure. Whether it's celebrating melons, dinosaurs, or wildflowers, Utah’s small towns have found the perfect excuse to throw a party, and they're not shy about it. Get ready to dive into the quirky side of Utah, where fun is just as much a part of the landscape as the red rocks.

Green River

With a name like Green River, this small town is a river runner’s retreat. Once known as the Rio Verde by Spanish and Mexican explorers, this wild river that runs through town has become increasingly greener since the river was dammed, thanks to silt in the water. Using Green River as a base camp, outdoor enthusiasts in town for its Melon Days festival can book a tour with a local outfitter and explore three nearby canyons by boat: Labyrinth, Stillwater, and the challenging Desolation Canyon, one of the 10 deepest canyons in the United States.

Since 1906, Green River has celebrated Melon Days, attracting thousands of visitors drawn to Southeastern Utah’s prime melon-growing spot. Initially, a peach-growing region, J.H. “Melon” Brown, began growing cantaloupes in 1919 after a deep freeze killed most of the peach trees. Today, the town that claims to have the best watermelons in the U.S. takes Melon Days seriously, with two days of festivities like a Melon Run, breakfast in the park, pony-unicorn rides, a softball tournament, a melon carving contest, a parade, and more. There’s even a famous Watermelon Slice sculpture built for the 1960 Melon Days parade. This year’s juicy festival runs from ​September 19th to 20th, 2025, in O.K. Anderson Park, where melon lovers can visit food and craft vendors, listen to live music and enjoy all the free watermelon slices you can eat.

Vernal

Vernal is known as the Dinosaur Land of Utah and looks like the set of the lovable modern Stone Age family from the Hanna-Barbera 1960s cartoon, The Flintstones. There is a giant pink dinosaur at the entrance to the small town in northeastern Utah, welcoming dino enthusiasts from all over the world to explore over 1,500 dinosaur fossils embedded in rock and dozens of petroglyph and pictograph sites within the 210,000-acre Dinosaur National Monument. In the nearby Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum, visitors can tour the site of a modern dig, a Fossil lab, a Fluorescent Minerals room, and 14 life-sized models of dinosaurs in the outdoor Dinosaur Garden.

It should come as no surprise at all that the town celebrates its prehistoric past with a kooky dinosaur-themed festival called Dinah SOAR Days, its annual hot-air balloon festival that began in 2018. This year’s balloon festival takes place from August 23 to 25, 2025, in downtown Vernal, with a craft market, food trucks, balloon launches, a dino dash, a beer garden, and other fossil-fueled celebrations.

Cedar City

Historic Cedar City is home to a vibrant arts scene, anchored by the renowned Utah Shakespeare Festival at Southern Utah University, which brings world-class theater to the city each summer. In its inaugural season during the 1960s, the scrappy theater company used the town’s residents as actors and drew an audience of about 3,000 playgoers. Today, the festival attracts over 100,000 visitors annually. This year’s festival runs from June 16 through October 4, 2025, and brings many of Bard’s most well-loved plays to life, including Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, and As You Like It.

Unlike the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, which runs nearly year-round and features a mix of Shakespearean and modern productions, the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City is seasonal. Visitors to Cedar City’s festival can take advantage of Utah’s stunning red rock landscape to explore nearby outdoor hiking opportunities in the stunning two-million-acre Dixie National Forest, the Three Peaks Recreation Area, or head further afield and discover why Cedar City calls itself the gateway to Utah’s five national parks.

Alta

Alta is a small resort community in Little Cottonwood Canyon, just 45 minutes from Salt Lake City, Utah’s capital. Known as one of Utah’s best ski towns, it shares the spotlight with nearby resorts like Brighton, Solitude, and Snowbird. But when the snow melts, the area transforms into a wildflower paradise. The Wasatch Wildflower Festival celebrates this stunning natural beauty every year, attracting visitors to explore the vibrant blooms that color the four Cottonwood Canyons ski areas. The festival was founded in 1996 by a group of flower-loving Alta residents who have provided education, guided walks, and family-friendly activities free of charge over four days every July. This year’s wildflower walks, music, kids’ craft activities, and lots of fresh flower-scented air take place on July 12 at the Brighton Resort, July 13 at Solitude Mountain Resort, July 19 at Snowbird Resort, and July 20 at the Alta Ski Area.

Midway

The small town of Midway joins other Swiss-inspired communities in the U.S., such as New Glarus, Wisconsin, Berne, Indiana, and the distinctive Swiss gem of Sugarcreek in Ohio, in celebrating its Alpine heritage. Situated in the picturesque Heber Valley, Midway is an outdoor enthusiast’s paradise as a gateway town to three state parks, including Jordanelle State Park and Reservoir, dog-friendly Deer Creek State Park, and the 23,000+-acre Wasatch Mountain State Park, home to the former 2002 Winter Olympics venue Soldier Hollow.

Celebrated every Labor Day weekend, the Midway Swiss Days Festival is held from August 30 to August 31, 2025, drawing a huge crowd to help the town pay tribute to its Swiss traditions and cultures. Full of traditional music and folk dances, authentic Swiss cuisine, and crafts, the family-friendly two-day event includes a 10k run, a chuck wagon breakfast, a parade, and much more. In between attending the jam-packed festival, visitors can stroll through the pretty town and indulge in a little Swiss-inspired shopping at Kringle’s, where every day is Christmas, Midway Must-Have Souvenir Shoppe, and lifestyle store Fernweh.

Farmington

Birding enthusiasts will want to mark their calendars for the Great Salt Lake Bird Festival in the outdoorsy town of Farmington in Davis County in northern Utah this spring. The Great Salt Lake Bird Festival is an annual event celebrating over 250 diverse bird species that migrate through the Great Salt Lake area in Utah. Since its humble beginnings in 1999, the festival has grown significantly, attracting birders from more than 20 U.S. states, Canada, and Australia. The 27th annual festival, scheduled for May 15-18, 2025, features more than 80 field trips and 14 workshops, and this year’s spotlight bird is the Belted Kingfisher, a striking, medium-sized bird known for its loud, dry, rattling call.

For bird enthusiasts and their families, Farmington is home to Lagoon, a fun, family-owned amusement park with Lagoon A Beach, a six-acre beach and surf-and-slide water park, a Pioneer Village where visitors can dress up in Old West apparel for pictures and ice cream, and over 60 rides. To see more than just birds in the area, the 28,000-acre Antelope Island State Park is nearby, featuring a bison herd of about 550-700, pronghorn antelope, mule deer, bighorn sheep, coyotes, bobcats, and more.

Pleasant Grove

Pleasant Grove is about twelve miles northwest of Provo and was founded by Mormon settlers on September 13, 1850. Originally named Battlecreek after a battle between the settlers and the Indigenous people, the settlers renamed the town after building their cabins in a “pleasant grove” of trees. During the 1920s - 1950s, Pleasant Grove was a major grower of strawberries and quickly became known as Utah’s “Strawberry City.” Although urban sprawl has transformed the strawberry fields into residential areas, the town continues to celebrate its annual Strawberry Day, which claims to be the longest continuing community celebration in the state. The 103rd Strawberry Days takes place from June 14 to 22, 2025, with a nonstop schedule of events, including a car show, a rodeo, a street carnival, a parade featuring Miss Pleasant Grove and her four attendants, live music, food trucks, and more.

Spanish Fork

Utah is an unlikely location for one of the largest Holi celebrations in North America, given its predominantly Mormon population and deep-rooted Western traditions—yet the festival thrives, drawing tens of thousands who embrace its message of unity and renewal. Holi is the Hindu Festival of Colors, a celebration rooted in the legend of Prahlada and Holika, where king Hiranyakashipu sought to kill his devout son for worshiping Vishnu, but his plan backfired when Holika, his fire-resistant sister, was burned instead—symbolizing the triumph of good over evil and the arrival of spring.

In the town of Spanish Fork in the Utah Valley, they celebrate Holi because of the Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple, built by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in the 1990s. ISKCON is popularly known as the “Hare Krishna” movement. This year’s celebration occurred on March 29 - 30, 2025, with music, arts and crafts, dance, yoga, and the celebratory throwing of colored powders.

Not to be outdone by the Holi festival, Spanish Fork celebrates Fiesta Days during the third week of July every year with community-oriented events like carnival rides, live entertainment, rodeos, a parade, and more. Spanish Fork Fiesta Days are on July 19 to 24, 2025.

Small Utah towns have some of the most unique festivals. Green River hosts Melon Days, a juicy celebration of its melon-growing roots with parades and contests. Vernal, known as Dinosaur Land, brings the fun with its Dinah SOAR Days hot air balloon festival, while Cedar City brings Shakespeare to life with its renowned festival. The ski town of Alta celebrates wildflowers, Midway honors its Swiss heritage, and Farmington attracts bird lovers with the Great Salt Lake Bird Festival. Pleasant Grove continues its long tradition of Strawberry Days, and Spanish Fork hosts an unexpectedly big Holi celebration. These festivals showcase the heart and charm of small-town Utah.