A festival that started in a neighborhood backyard barbecue has been revived into a full, street-wide music festival.
Grillfest will be taking place at The Pearl on Main Aug. 22 and 23. With a lineup of metal bands and brisket burning on the fire, the two-day music festival will be the best way to celebrate the end of summer.
“We are trying to put on the kind of festival that we would have loved to have attended so many years ago,” John Yelland, festival coordinator and Judicator band member, said.
What is Grillfest?
Yelland said that when the festival began, it was a gathering of friends and family members, and has now turned into so much more. “It became kind of a fixture for the local music community,” he said.
Beginning as a “bring your own meat and gear” backyard event to a full-fledged music festival, Grillfest is partnering with the city of Midvale and the Midvale Main Street Business Alliance and will block off Midvale Main Street for the entirety of the event. Food and craft vendors, including Cuppa Love, Slopeside Smoke Shack and Bacio D’Italia, will be posted along the street, including the knights of the Order of the Silver Rose. Now, what could get more metal than a bunch of shiny swords and clanky suits?
Bands playing the festival include Celestial Wizard, Silver Talon, Advent Horizon, Judicator and several others. Friday will host melodic, rock bands, while Saturday will host the main show of the heavy, loud metal bands. Yelland said that since the first iteration of the festival, Grillfest has gained wide popularity and has even attracted out-of-state fans. As a festival coordinator and band member, he emphasized the importance of the Utah music scene. Having been creating music since the early 2010s, Yelland said that this growth has shown him that it was time to have a bigger stage to feed the crowd. Given the large, DIY punk scene that Salt Lake fostered from the 1990s, it only makes sense that festival coordinators would reignite the flame for Grillfest.
“We have so much talent here, no matter what it is, whether it’s art or music,” he said. “I think there’s an appetite for more DIY, ground-level stuff like this to happen.”
The event welcomes all ages and invites the opportunity for music fans of all genres to enjoy local music, food and banter. There will be pauses between performances for everyone to enjoy food, chat and be neighborly, carrying on the intentions from a small, backyard barbecue.
“I really want Grillfest to be a place where small bands can have a meaningful audience, where medium to large bands can also play,” he said. “I want this to be something that benefits people of all walks of life, and bands at every strata.”
There is already an immense amount of opportunity Utah has to offer for the local music community between The Velour Live Music Gallery, Kilby Block Party and various summer concert series. The addition of Grillfest will create a close, reunion style festival for the suburbs of Utah to gather together, eat some burgers and jam to some heavy metal music.
“I want this to recapture as many of the elements as I can that made the original Grillfest so special to begin with,” Yelland said.
The festival will be taking place Aug. 22 and 23. Find your tickets here.
