ANTELOPE ISLAND — Tourism promoters hope Wasatch Front residents take a staycation for Labor Day weekend and attend the sixth annual Antelope Island Stampede Festival.
“This year’s festival promises to be bigger and better than ever, with a full lineup of entertainment all weekend long,” said Kathi Dysert, festival public relations and marketing director.
Dysert said the three-day event is expected to have a $1.7 million economic impact for Davis County.
“Even if they are local people (who attend the event),” she said, “they are spending money.”
The stampede festival, which begins at 5 p.m. Aug. 31, attracts from 20,000 to 22,000 visitors a year, Dysert said.
Festival organizers have added more vendors, a BMX kids’ clinic and musical acts with a regional following.
“We’re hoping with some of the new things it increases attendance,” Dysert said.
The classic rock ’n’ roll band Monrovia is scheduled to perform from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Aug. 31, and Imagine, a Beatles tribute band, will perform from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Sept. 1.
Both concerts will be followed by a fireworks display at the water’s edge of White Rock Bay.
Other highlights for the three-day event include the hotair balloon launches and, for the first time, a demonstration by the Utah Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association, featuring some of the best flyers in the world, Dysert said.
The celebration features 40 food and merchandise vendors, a mechanical bull, a climbing wall and a kids tent.
The festival begins at 6 a.m. Friday, Aug. 31, with a hot air balloon launch from Kaysville Ponds Park at 950 S. 50 West. Kaysville.
The balloons will be launched from the park, over the Interstate 15 corridor, Dysert said.
Island festivities begin at 5 p.m. the same day, with skydivers carrying in an American flag as a part of an opening National Anthem ceremony.
Weather permitting, hot air balloon launches will also take place on the mornings of Saturday, Sept. 1 and Sunday, Sept. 2, from Kaysville Ponds Park.
The cost to attend the stampede is $15 per vehicle to be paid at the Antelope Island causeway park entrance.
For more information call 801-774-8200.
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