Utah Cultural Heritage Celebration returns to Layton this weekend
Photo supplied, Terra Cooper
Oaxaca en Utah performs at the inaugural Utah Cultural Heritage Celebration at Layton Hills Mall in 2025. Oaxaca en Utah is one of the groups set to appear at the second annual Celebration set for Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026.LAYTON — The Utah Cultural Heritage Celebration is set to return for its second year.
The second annual celebration of music, dance, art, food and traditions will return to the Layton Hills Mall on Saturday from 1-2:30 p.m.
Layton Hills Mall Marketing and Community Engagement Manager Glady Larsen told the Standard-Examiner on Tuesday the event will feature performances from diverse sections of Utah’s background.
“Families will have the opportunity to experience the cultural rich traditions that we have here in Utah through some performances,” she said. “In fact, we are pleased to welcome back Oaxaca en Utah, which will share some of the tradition Oaxaca folk dance through just these colorful costumes, music, movement and a little bit of storytelling. And about storytelling, we are so pleased to feature the Navajo hoop dancer, Patrick Willie of Cultural Fire Events. He will be doing a performance of our American Indigenous culture and also doing a little bit of that storytelling telling us a little bit about what it is that they are representing.”
She added that there will also be arts and crafts and vendors selling food and cultural items in attendance.
Larsen said organizers took a couple of lessons from the inaugural event last year and applied them in planning this year’s Cultural Heritage Celebration.
“Last year we had food trucks, which we’re not bringing this year again because it divided the intention of our event,” she said. “We are making it just a short event, but we’re hopeful that people will come during those hours so that they can benefit from the live performances.”
She said that the event is also more compact time-wise this year to make it more feasible for families to enjoy the full event.
“We are hoping that this will actually help shape the celebration by allowing people to feel like they’re in community,” she said. “Last year we had so many people that participated, and we had a lot of different performers. This year we shortened the performances so that most people can see the full event.”
For more information, visit https://www.shoplaytonhills.com/event/43233-utah-cultural-heritage-celebration.
