The annual Helper Arts, Music and Film Festival is going to be in full swing on Helper’s historic Main Street beginning Thursday, August 19 and running till Sunday, August 22. The festival has been able to expose and promote working artists both in arts, music and film.
The festival kicks off on Thursday, August 19 with Price City’s Culture Connection concert series. “We partner with Price City and Culture Connection so we’ll be closing our Main Street to host Culture Connection that Thursday along with the gallery strolls. So all of the galleries will be open and people can enjoy the artwork and everything that our local area artists have been doing over the past year. Then we roll right into it Friday with vendor setup. We will point out that we’re structuring the actual festival differently and this is to enhance social distancing,” stated Mayor Lenise Peterman. The vendor booths will not be located down the center of Main Street but rather on the right and left sides of the street. This is a measure that festival organizers are taking to keep folks safe and healthy. Vendor booths should be up and running by 2:00 pm on Friday.
Live entertainment is set to begin at noon on Friday, August 20 and run till 11:00 pm. A more practical location for the Children’s Art Yard has been developed as Mayor Peterman explains, “We’re also relocating the Children’s Art Yard. That will be in the lot between the bowling alley and Marsha’s Sammich Shop. So we’ll have tents there, tables and things for the kids, it will keep them a little more centralized. Then we’re also implementing a community stage at the south end of Main Street, where we would like to encourage locals who, basically kind of an open mic, you know if they want to sing, dance, you know if they have a band and want to play that’s going to be a great opportunity to showcase our local talent.” There will be canopies set up near the community stage to help shade performers and spectators. If anyone would like to perform on the community stage, they are urged to contact Mayor Peterman via email at helperartsfestival@gmail.com or send a text to (801) 712-7622.
“I should also tell you that we’re doing a lot of fun things with the film piece of the festival. At the conclusion of Friday at 11:30 pm we are going to do a midnight showing of a local Utah film that was filmed in Canyonlands, we’re excited to offer that to folks and it’ll kick off about 11:30 pm Friday night. Then on Sunday we will have a Stop Motion film workshop, again for kids and their family from 10:00 am till about 11:30 am at The Rio. The Utah Film Commission is coming down they’re going to bring iPads and iPhones and they are going to work with the kids on how to create Stop Motion films,” said Mayor Peterman.
To learn more about the Helper Arts, Music and Film Festival visit their website at https://www.helperartsfestival.com/