Written by Don Gilman
The Zion Canyon Music Festival is at a critical crossroads in its history. After what organizers would call six successful years, the Springdale music festival might be facing its final year in operation. Multiple factors have contributed to its struggle, but given the most recent turn of events regarding the Springdale Town Council’s view on their part in facilitating the event, one of the main issues confronting the Zion Canyon Music Festival is a lack of volunteers—or rather the fact that while many have previously committed to volunteering, there has been a lack of follow-through.
Alex Pelton, one of the co-chairs of the Festival, reiterated that besides the question of Town Council backing, the lynchpin in keeping the music festival going is the need for increased volunteer hours.
“The Town Council is concerned about costs and liability,” Pelton said. “They’re worried about staff hours and liability with alcohol and [the town of Springdale’s] name on it. With volunteers, quite a few have committed time and hours to the music festival in September. But it’s a small town. People are busy. It seems there is a lot of events and things, [which means] the same people asked to volunteer over and over. There are lots of volunteer opportunities in town.”
Pelton went on to tell The Independent that it was a “make it or break it” event this year.
“The financial aspect is one of the biggest question marks, with staff hours and law enforcement. Those are issues we’re trying to address,” Pelton said. “We are trying to cut back on the amount of hours of the town staff leading up the event.”
With its tenuous status, the Zion Canyon Music Festival organizers are still calling for more volunteers.
“We’re looking for thirty or forty people to help us throughout the weekend,” Pelton said. “Volunteers can put in three or four hours and then enjoy themselves the rest of the time. This is for the people of southern Utah; this festival is put on for them. It is put on for Zion Canyon community, but also Washington County, St. George and the surrounding area. We need help from them as well, whether it be attendance or sponsorship. Hopefully they will rally behind our cause.”
Additionally, Pelton said that attendance at the actual event and vendor participation will be very important to the success of the Zion Canyon Music Festival.
“We are also looking for more vendors to buy booths,” Pelton said. “We are pretty short on those this year, so that is another thing we are working on.”
Pelton’s co-chair, Julie Hancock, believes that the people of Springdale and Washington County want the Festival to happen, but busy lives makes it difficult to gain the support that they need.
“This is a busy season for Springdale,” Hancock said. “It’s hot, they work all day, or they have to work on the weekends when we need the volunteers. I do understand people are busy and trying to make a living.”
Despite that, Hancock believes it is in the interest of the community to keep the Festival running strong.
“If they do want this as a community event, it needs to be helped out by the community,” she said. “It’s hard to get volunteers on a regular basis. The Music Festival is a community event; we want to keep it a community event, to have fun and celebrate.”
Hancock said that the Zion Summer Fest, set to take place on Friday, July 17, will help raise funds for the Zion Canyon Music Festival.
Pelton also hopes to see the Festival remain a community event.
“It is a community event,” Pelton said. “We’re trying to keep it an affordable event. If it was taken on by private enterprise, it would become more expensive and have less of a community feel.”
Businesses, vendors and volunteers interested in offering support can contact Julie Hancock at the Canyon Community Center at [email protected].
RELATED STORIES:
– Springdale to continue Zion Canyon Music Festival one more year
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