10 Best Performing Arts in Moab and Southeastern Utah, Utah

Every Memorial Day weekend, artists from across the West gather at Moab's Swanny City Park to show their wares, including pottery, photography, and paintings. This fun, free festival is small enough to be manageable and sells a variety of affordable artworks and crafts. Expect lots of food, plus activities for the kids. Most days have live music and local theater on two stages.

Some of America's top folk artists converge in Moab each November to perform on indoor and outdoor stages. Past artists have included Richard Thompson, Shawn Colvin, Bruce Cockburn, Loudon Wainwright III, and Ferron.

Every September you can see traditional Ute ceremonial dances at the Bear Dance. The dance takes place during a four-day celebration held Labor Day weekend on the Ute Reservation. The Ute Mountain powwow and dance represent the end of summer and the impending hibernation of the bear.

A growing local artist community shows off its talent during this annual festival in mid-October. Each year features a different theme and touts four days of artist receptions, lectures, and workshops, along with the Bluff Film Festival.

Colorful hot-air balloons—some from as far away as England—take to the skies over the Valley of the Gods and the town of Bluff during this mid-January festival, held during the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. Attend the "glow in" if weather allows, and see balloons illuminated against the night sky by the flame from the propane heaters that fill them with hot air. Bring warm clothing and expect crisp, clear weather.

If you find yourself at Goulding's Lodge in the evening, you can take in films that explore the natural natural beauty of the area, followed by a nightly John Wayne movie. 

For more than a week each year, Easter Jeep Safari draws thousands of 4x4 vehicles to Moab to tackle some of the toughest backcountry roads in America. For all other visitors (and some locals), this is a good time of year to avoid town.

In southeast Utah there's nothing quite like the taste of the fresh cantaloupe, watermelon, honeydew, and canary melon grown along the Green River. For more than a century, locals have celebrated the harvest with Melon Days the third weekend of September. This small-town event features a parade (watch for the 25-foot watermelon slice to roll down the street), a car show, plenty of music and dancing, and thousands of pounds of Green River's famous melons. The parade winds down Main Street to OK Anderson City Park, where the festival is held. If you're lucky enough to be in the area for Melon Days, don't miss it.

Moab's red rocks resonate with world-class music—classical, jazz, and traditional—during this annual festival held at indoor and outdoor venues including the city park, local auditoriums, private homes, and a natural stone grotto along the Colorado River. Musicians from all over the globe perform, and it's one of the West's top music showcases. The festival starts the Thursday before Labor Day and runs about two weeks.

This unique event brings together the diverse Moab community on the last Saturday of October. This festival may not be like any other you've attended; here, people from all over the Southwest build contraptions—catapults, trebuchets, and slingshots—that send pumpkins across the sky. Live music, about 25 vendor booths, and typically beautiful weather make this a popular event. Proceeds go toward the Youth Garden Project.