Written By: Codi Farmer
Nestled in Utah’s capital among the mountains, desert, and the Great Salt Lake lies a hidden gem of a music festival. Imagine that you’re under the warm sun in a crowd that you can comfortably stand in, you’re fully hydrated with free cold water and you just ate a brick of curly fries with your friends. You’re watching your favorite indie artist and you still have five more amazing sets to see that evening. This is Kilby Block Party, a new-ish festival at the Utah State Fairpark in Salt Lake City held annually in the middle of May.
In previous years, Kilby Block Party has hosted dozens of incredible artists such as Alvvays, Steve Lacy, Phoebe Bridgers, Mild High Club, Car Seat Headrest, and more. This year, however, I think that the planners truly outdid themselves. Some of the headlining artists featured were The Strokes, Pixies, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Backseat Lovers, Osees, Japanese Breakfast, Weyes Blood, Ethel Cain, Pavement, and that’s just the beginning. The lineup overall seemed to follow a pretty cohesive vibe but still reigned in enough artists that don’t exclusively play some subgenre of indie that there really was something for everyone.
Some of my personal favorite performances were Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Goth Babe, Indigo De Souza, Mannequin Pussy, and Surf Curse. Yeah Yeah Yeahs were my favorite headliners of the weekend, with the others being The Strokes and Pavement. The crowd was so kind and energetic with people dancing and laughing and giving out stickers to new festival friends, the performance was electric and nothing could have prepared me for “Maps” live. Goth Babe’s crowd interaction was unmatched and his love and passion for his music was captivating. Indigo De Souza was technically incredible and her vocals were jaw-dropping. Mannequin Pussy woke up the 2 PM crowd and engaged everyone with a powerful and liberating speech before enacting a group scream. Surf Curse, though I was not a part of the main crowd for their set (I had to rush to see Pixies), the crowd was packed in tight and dancing to the music in a way that I had only seen from the central crowd during The Strokes’ set.
Some aspects of this festival that I was particularly impressed by were the punctuality of every performance and the safety measures enacted for the fans. Nearly every performer began right on time with the longest delay I witnessed being 5 minutes. At many festivals that I’ve been to in the past, some acts will come on as much as 20 minutes after their set start time which I have always found to be very unprofessional and disrespectful towards the fans and the festival as a whole. Multiple artists stopped their sets when they saw something sketchy happening in the crowd or for medical emergencies since it was really hot at some points under that Utah sun. There were also measures put into place for weather emergencies such as lightning coming too close to the fairgrounds, which happened more often than I had expected.
To be honest, I think the worst thing about the festival was simply the weather issues. For the week leading up, the forecast said blue skies and beating sun, something that we Eugenians desperately need. However, on Saturday and Sunday both, there were delays and even an evacuation due to lightning in the area. On Saturday, there was a delay between Goth Babe and Indigo De Souza which resulted in a mass influx to the food stands and porta-potties as we festival-goers patiently waited to figure out what was happening.
On Sunday, things got a bit more extreme. At around 8 PM, it started pouring rain in the middle of the Pixies set. Most of the fans pushed through and kept dancing despite the rain, however, their set got cut about 20 minutes short due to massive strikes of lightning in the area and strong winds. The sky was red from the sunset, people were screaming as they tried to evacuate the fairgrounds as quickly as they could. The rest of their set was canceled and it looked as though the festival might have ended before the final headliner, Pavement, got to play their set. Thankfully the weather cleared up pretty quickly and Pavement’s performance got pushed back to a 10 PM start time.
For all the foodies out there, you will be happy to hear that the food was amazing and that there were dozens of incredible options. We were blessed with a wide range of options from Venezuelan to African to Thai to BBQ and nearly everything in between. There were plenty of vegan and vegetarian options and an abundance of treats and fun drinks to wash down the $15 loaded fries. Obviously, with it being a festival, the prices were very steep. I couldn’t find anything that was less than $5, but generally, the portions were generous and the food was delicious.
Within the fairgrounds, there were four stages set up with one in every cardinal direction and beautiful views behind each one. Two of the stages were pretty large with giant screens on either side and wicked shots of every artist and every band member and the other two were a bit smaller for the less popular artists. I wish that there were screens with every stage since the platforms themselves weren’t super high off the ground making it difficult for shorter folks to be able to see, but overall the distribution seemed pretty perfect for the festival. As any festival tends to go, there were a lot of disappointing overlaps of performances which meant everyone had to pick and choose (choosing between Ethel Cain or The Backseat Lovers should be a crime), but there isn’t much that can be done about that without reducing the number of artists.
Now to the down and dirty of Kilby Block Party: the bathroom. There were lots of different bathroom options scattered around the fairgrounds with a few dozen porta-potties in two different locations. In addition to this, there were also stationary bathrooms inside some of the fairgrounds buildings as well as a few bathrooms for ADA accommodations. Somewhat coinciding with this is the free water stations set up. There were only three water stations and a few very hidden water fountains in the entire festival. The water stations were self-serve but were far less chaotic than I had expected. At most, I think I waited five minutes to fill up my water.
As far as the people who came to this festival, it was the largest collection of kind and beautiful people I have ever been lucky enough to be around. Everyone was seemingly very self-aware and nonaggressive which I was really happy about. It was extremely easy to make festival friends and everyone was just generally there to have a good time. I have had experiences at previous festivals where people will try to pick fights for fun or will be rude to you while trying to cut through the crowd, but this wasn’t really an issue. It was an immediate safe space for LGBTQA+ folks, people with disabilities, and even children!
I was a bit shocked while going through security the first day, to be honest. They didn’t do intensive searches into bags or pockets and were generally extremely trusting towards everyone coming in. I saw fewer confiscations than ever before at a festival which, at first, made me quite nervous. On day one I was worried about there being a safety issue if someone brought in a weapon of sorts, but after interacting with people there, I realized that this fear may thankfully be misplaced. However, they did confiscate my Burt’s Bees chapstick which I was quite bitter about since Utah is so dry, but alas. This was my ninth music festival that I have been lucky enough to go to which means that, though I’m no expert, I’m rather familiar with what to expect when going to one. I went in with little expectations as this is a festival that is a mere four years old, so I was fully prepared for some minor kinks and issues. However, I was pleasantly surprised and honestly can say that this is now my favorite festival I have ever gone to.
The lineups are always amazing, the tickets are pretty affordable, the location is beautiful, the space is inclusive, and the people are kind. It was very professionally run and I felt safe and comfortable at pretty much all times. The worst parts of the festival honestly were just the weather mishaps and the very long drive we partook in but if the worst thing about a festival is some unforeseen weather, I’d say it’s a damn good festival. So with that, Kilby Block Party, I can’t wait to see you again next year.