EDITOR’S NOTE: For preview coverage of the 50th Utah Arts Festival, which runs June 18-21, The Utah Review is presenting individual or group profiles of artists, performers, entertainers and some newcomers to the event. The curtain raiser highlights the history of the Festival which is marking its golden anniversary. BANDALOOP, among the most prominent pioneers of vertical dance, returns to UAF for the fourth time, having appeared in 2005. 2013 and 2018. Once again, the Oakland-based arts company will perform on the 240-foot-high curving glass façade of the City Library, as part of a June tour in four cities featuring a work with ecological roots that will resonate with collective concerns about the Great Salt Lake’s ecological crisis, as the dance artists perform FLOCK while integrating company repertoire pieces including Downstream and its new creation, life || lines, all with an original score featuring music by four composers. Salt Lake Acting Company will appear for the second time at the festival, offering a sample from its upcoming summer show, The Gaslight Zone. Make-and-take opportunities will be among the most extensive in history, with Make Salt Lake as well as Secondhand Salamander which is bringing back the classic Mad Hatter project, and, of course, the Kids’ Art Yard. Urban Arts is offering its largest live graffiti mural installation featuring eight artists in four Festival campus locations, while a row of several other artists will be demonstrating their creative process in real time. Holdman Studios, based in Lehi with an international portfolio of commissions to create stained glass in religious and civic buildings, including a recent update to the Utah State Capitol rotunda, is offering an unprecedented series of free workshops for participants to create their own stained glass artwork. The City Library auditorium will be the home to the 23rd edition of the international Fear No Film program, with 84 short films on a slate of 15 programs, the second largest in the event’s history. Of course, dance, who wears the empress jewels in performing arts, will be represented by Repertory Dance Theatre, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, Sock Opera Dance, and, of course, the ever-popular 1520 Arts, which will feature Trash Panda Drum Group and competitions featuring Sol Tribe as part of the Salt Open Styles Battle along with the Red Bull Dance Your Style battle and a collaboration with Utah Valley University’s ESPRIT in Rep Your Set Choreo Competition, with choreographers who specialize variously in hip hop, contemporary, salsa, reggaeton, afro, popping. Headliners this year include Digable Planets, well known among jazz musicians as well as hip hop artists (June 18); Yola, six-time Grammy-nominated artist, songwriter, and actor (June 19); Austin-based musician Alejandro Rose-Garcia, better known as Shakey Graves, who has been cited for creating new musical experiences tailored to each fan, ranging from Bandcamp-exclusive releases to hosting interactive scavenger hunts while on tour (June 20) and Rubblebucket, a band well known for its hybrid genre blend of psychedelia and electronic dance music (June 21). For tickets and more information, see the Utah Arts Festival website.
SECONDHAND SUN (JUNE 21, PARK STAGE, 5 p.m.)
At the age of 12, Kacie Arena was polishing his guitar and songwriting skills and was preparing to release his first EP, admittedly modest. In an interview with The Utah Review, Arena said, “I had established early on that it’s obviously something that I love and that I want to do for a long time. Of course, that little EP was not very good but, yeah, it was a start.”
With his brother, Josh, who played drums, Kacie formed Giants in the Oak Tree, a band that blended folk and psychedelic musical sensibilities. The trio, which eventually included guitarist Gabe Lytle, established a following in Salt Lake City and Ogden. But the Arena brothers also were looking to branch out and collaborate with other musicians, which led to Secondhand Sun. On New Year’s Eve ahead of 2025, the new band released its debut EP with five tracks, Keeping Score, which the Arena brothers recorded and it dropped before Secondhand Sun had played its first live show.
The EP signified Arena’s earnest commitment to creating an indie band with other members, some of whom were close friends and musicians, and which could produce original songs while throwing in a few covers for good measure. Arena explained that Secondhand Sun has blossomed into a collective, which gives the band flexibility to build its creative momentum even if one of the other four members of the core is not available. “We have other people that I can call on and it doesn’t always have to be the same lineup, which is exciting because you always get new fresh ideas, textures and sounds when you work with other people,” Arena explained. “It’s nice to have a little ring of people that I can call on at any point to just play a show and have fun doing it.”
One of Arena’s formative influences in terms of song as a story-telling vessel is Conor Oberst, the Nebraskan who has been the principal creative force behind Bright Eyes indie rock band. “The crazy thing is that we listen to so much music where that question of who is a major role model actually becomes incredibly difficult to answer because we will play anything,” Arena explained, adding that he and the others see Secondhand Sun like a New Age jam band.” The band will cover songs by King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, the Australian band which ventures frequently out of its familiar psychedelic rock styles, an approach that fits nicely with Secondhand Sun’s approach to curating its catalog for performances.
When writing songs, Arena said he must have some musical ideas in mind before setting down lyrics. “Usually it’s just playing guitar alone in my room or if I find a guitar melody or a couple of chords that I really like and from there, I’m spitballing for the most part until I find a cohesive story or a theme. It’s always guitar first for me; very rarely, is it lyrics.”
He added that on the off chance he already has written a poem which might become a part of the song but only if it accidentally fits, it still always is some guitar chords or a melody that comes first. “I have to be alone when I’m writing lyrics and a lot of anything I write about sometimes comes from a whim,” Arena explained. “It can depend on if I’m feeling really down that day, and then lyrics come to me a lot easier. The music is very in the moment and there are words and expressions in the stories that come to my mind which sometimes can be difficult because a lot of the best music does come from a sad place. Of course, you’re not always sad and if you are, that sucks but it’s true. That’s probably the broadest most accurate description of what I know the songwriter process has always been. It has to start from an emotional point or trigger and usually that is sad or contemplative. You feel like there’s a gap in the moment that needs to be filled one way or the other.”
Given that the band has only been together for barely a year and a half, festival crowds will hear a good amount of new music, given that the band is working toward an album release by the end of the year as well as a new single (which will be included on the forthcoming album) and a music video that should drop later this summer. Playing a major venue such as the Utah Arts Festival,has primed the band’s momentum. Secondhand Sun also will perform later this summer at Craft Lake City’s DIY Fest.