SLC is again closing Main Street, adding fun to enliven downtown summer weekends

The heart of downtown Salt Lake City is once again being turned into a casual and car-free street party on weekend evenings.

The regular summer fetes of strolling and sidewalk dining on Friday and Saturdays that started five years ago — as temporary relief from the effects of COVID-19 lockdowns — are now a vibrant fixture and economic boost along Main Street.

Friday’s opener for what the city calls Open Streets saw an initial spurt of visitors, families and a host of artists, musicians and other attractions spill onto the calmed streets and sidewalks along temporarily cordoned-off stretches of Main and adjoining blocks between South Temple and 400 South.

This walking-friendly, lively reimagining of downtown will now happen from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. every Friday and Saturday through June.

A total of 10 downtown street blocks along Main and side thoroughfares between West Temple and State Street are now part of the party.

Saturday’s version of the Main Street bash will overlap with crowds and celebrations for the Utah Pride Festival, which is centered at Washington Square around City Hall, 451 S. State St., just a block away.

Open Streets is a city-backed program that aims to reinvent sidewalk and street spaces downtown by positioning performers, games, art installations, public stages and other features along both sides of Main in a celebration of downtown culture.

Restaurants enjoy relaxed rules for outdoor patios and other street-side spaces, which typically fill with diners.

Salt Lake City Council member Eva Lopez Chavez, who represents downtown, went on a spree-like walking tour Friday with other city officials of Open Streets’ four distinct zones, each themed to showcase some of downtown’s features.

As she threaded through the celebrations and interacted with revelers, she said Open Streets’ temporary curbs on north-south automobile traffic helped restore Main, for a while, to something of its pedestrian heyday.

“One hundred years ago, Main Street was a walkable urban core,” Chavez said. “If you look through our city’s archives, we are just reinventing that same experience in a contemporary manner, where we coexist with vehicular access and pedestrian access in a safe manner.”

Chavez called Open Streets an example of “place-making and making of third spaces that people can enjoy safely, both from an entertainment perspective, but also from just walking.”

You get a different flavor of the city’s urban core with this year’s Open Streets as you move south along Main Street.

Between South Temple and 100 South, Main is being themed as a Family Commons, with portions of the block near City Creek Center filled with family-friendly games, jugglers and other spectacles.

From 100 South to 200 South — spanning 111 Main and the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Theater — Main is being dubbed Arts Avenue and is filled with live musical street performers and public art installations.

From 200 South to 300 South, the theme is one of a Village Market, with a focus on vendors and small businesses selling goods at booths, punctuated by a community stage facing Main right off the John W. Gallivan Utah Center plaza.

The segment from 300 South to 400 South is Restaurant Row, where eateries offer sidewalk seating, with an outdoor beer garden at Exchange Place as well as live DJs positioned along the way and a mini-golf installation.

The city is encouraging more business owners, artists, food vendors and performers to participate in Open Streets this year. Applications are at www.openstreets.slc.gov.