- Salt Lake City's Busker Fest returns this weekend, bringing street performers downtown.
- The popular event faces uncertainty due to proposed budget cuts for upcoming fiscal year.
- Future funding might return, but city is also exploring expanding busking opportunities beyond annual event.
SALT LAKE CITY — Dee Brewer gets all sorts of questions about downtown events.
Busker Fest usually draws the most, though. The city's annual event has been a downtown tradition for nearly a decade, bringing musicians, magicians and other street performers from across the state and world to downtown.
It debuted in 2018 and survived a pandemic pause, briefly mixing into Salt Lake City's "Open Streets" when it returned in 2021.
"(It's) quickly developed a loyal audience," said Brewer, director of the Salt Lake City Downtown Alliance. "I think it's growing its audience too."
Dozens of local and international street performers will be returning to downtown this Friday and Saturday (between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. each day) for the free, all-ages event. Events will be scattered across Eccles Theater, 131 S. Main, as well as McCarthey Plaza and Regent Street, located around the building.
"It's one of our most family-friendly events ... so we're expecting a lot of families out and about," said Felicia Baca, director of the Salt Lake City Arts Council, the organization that oversees the event.
However, its future beyond this weekend is still being determined after regular funding for the event was proposed to be cut from next year's budget.
Proposed cuts
Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall recommended several program cuts to reduce the property tax increase she proposed in her 2027 fiscal year budget, including $125,000 in funding for Busker Fest and a few other events. It was part of more than $13 million in cuts that were made after she asked the Salt Lake City Arts Council and other departments to trim their requests by 5%.
No decisions have been made yet on the budget or about Busker Fest's future.
It's possible that funding could return before the event is normally held toward the end of May. Even if it's cut, Salt Lake City regularly amends its budget when new funds become available, which can happen when grants, donations or revenues from taxes and fees exceed projections.
"Hopefully, growing revenue with our growing city allows us to restore some of the funding that was proposed for a pause or an elimination this year," Mendenhall told KSL, saying the same is true for other cuts proposed this year.
The Salt Lake City Arts Council is still reviewing options, along with many other events, Baca said. The council, she said, is still looking to prioritize free and accessible events across the city, but it's still evaluating various options for them.
The future of busking?
It's also possible that the spirit of Busker Fest could expand beyond one weekend, she adds. The festival always aimed to highlight the busking world and showcase what it could be in the city, encouraging more street performances downtown.
The Arts Council has even worked with the city's real estate services division to explore permitting changes to make busking more accessible for artists.
"We want those buskers to be more organic in the community and throughout the year ... and make it more of a hospitable environment for them," Baca said.
Busking performances could be more frequent downtown next year, as the city prepares for a visitation surge tied to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Salt Lake Temple open house.
Brewer understands the decision that led to the proposed funding cuts that could impact Busker Fest's future, saying the Downtown Alliance remains hopeful that new funding sources can keep the event going.
Downtown leaders would also be interested in seeing more downtown busking scattered throughout the year, providing a unique experience for downtown residents and visitors.
"We're very interested in making busking accessible and easy for artists to do," he said. "There are some barriers to that, but I think those are things that we can work through with the city because I know ... there's a lot of interest in seeing more of that kind of activation downtown."
