Highland throws its Scottish games, the county fair opens free in Spanish Fork, and Folkfest's last three nights land in Springville
Plus Domo's $400 million sale in American Fork, the Alpine district split a year out, and a free history quest for the kids in Lehi.
Good morning, Happy Valley.
The Twenty-Fourth is behind us and the valley usually goes quiet about now. Not this week. Highland spends three days throwing cabers and marching a parade to the park, the Utah County Fair opens Wednesday with free admission and a free rodeo, and the Folkfest wraps its fortieth year in Springville with dancers from six countries. Down south there's a drive-in window that has been selling burgers on Spanish Fork's Main Street since 1954, a couple of blocks from the fairgrounds, which makes the plan for Wednesday night write itself.
📍 30 seconds in the valley⏱️ 6 min read
- 🥌Highland's Scottish games, and you can enter them
- 🎡The county fair opens Wednesday, free at the gate
- 🍔The Spanish Fork drive-in that swears off fry sauce
⭐ The Big One
Pick of the week Highland turns Heritage Park into a Scottish games field
The Highland Fling runs Thursday through Saturday, and it is the rare small-city celebration that earns the name it was given. Thursday opens easy with a car show from 5 to 8, a firemen's fundraiser dinner and dunk tank, a horseshoe tournament, and a home run derby. Friday flips to Luau Night, with a strongman competition from 4:30 to 9, island food and entertainment on the lawn, and Disney's Lilo and Stitch on the screen at 9. Saturday is where the name earns itself. The 5K goes off at 7, the Grand Parade runs 9 to 10:30 from Highland Elementary down to Heritage Park, and the Highland Games run 9 to 5 at the park: caber toss, stone put, sheaf toss, the whole heavy-athletics card. Vendors and food trucks stay open from 9 until dark, the kids zone runs 11 to 7 for free, a concert starts at 6, and fireworks close it out at 10. Highland is a town most of the valley drives past on the way to Alpine, and for three days a year it throws a party nobody else in the county tries to copy.
Our take
Fifty-three dollars gets you onto the field. That is the part most people miss about the Highland Games: spectators walk in free, but the heavy events are open to anyone willing to pay the entry and pick up a caber. Even if you never sign up, watching a neighbor try the sheaf toss beats another folding-chair concert. Saturday stacks a parade, a full games card, a free kids zone from 11 to 7, a concert at 6, and fireworks at 10, and almost none of it costs anything.⚠️ Heads up: Parking along the parade route means walking to Heritage Park anyway, since that is where the parade ends and everything else already is. Park near the park and walk back up to the route.
Free familiesfreenorth county
📰 Around the Valley
American Fork's Domo agrees to sell itself for $400 million
Domo, the American Fork data and analytics company founded in 2010 by Omniture founder Josh James, agreed last week to sell substantially all of its assets and certain liabilities to Progress Software for $400 million in cash. Progress picks up more than 2,400 customers along with Domo's AI and data platform. The deal is expected to close inside Progress's fiscal year, which ends November 30, pending regulatory approval. Progress is taking on Domo's employees along with the platform. Domo has been one of the anchor names on the Silicon Slopes stretch between Lehi and American Fork for fifteen years, so this one lands close to home for a lot of Utah County commuters.
The Alpine School District split is now a year out
Utah's largest school district is about twelve months from becoming three. The new boards took office in January, spent the spring hiring superintendents and dividing assets and liabilities, and had until this month to finalize the details. Classes start under the new districts in the 2027-28 school year. The west district covers Saratoga Springs, Eagle Mountain, Cedar Fort and Fairfield; the central district covers Lehi, Highland, Alpine, Cedar Hills and American Fork; a third covers the east side of the valley. For families, the practical question is which district a given school lands in, and those boundaries are now drawn.
📅 This Week
Festival
Worth it
🎡 The Utah County Fair opens Wednesday in Spanish Fork
The fair runs Wednesday through Saturday at the Spanish Fork Fairgrounds, 475 South Main, and both admission and parking are free. Wednesday is 4 to 10, Thursday 2 to 10, Friday noon to 10, and Saturday 10 to 10. The Western Rodeo takes the arena Wednesday from 7 to 10 with free admission and open seating, and the Demolition Derby runs Friday and Saturday nights at 7 for $25 to $37. Livestock shows, carnival rides, vendors and live music fill the rest.
Our take
County fairs have quietly gotten expensive in a lot of places. This one hasn't. Free at the gate, free to park, and free to watch the rodeo on opening night. Bring the kids Wednesday, let them run the midway, watch the rodeo, and spend money only if you feel like it. The two arena nights you pay for are the derby on Friday and Saturday, and those earn the ticket if a demolition derby is your thing.⚠️ Heads up: Everything is free except the ticketed arena nights, and the derby at $25 to $37 plus monster trucks at $15 adds up fast for a family. Pick one.
Free familiesfreesouth county
Arts
Book now
🌍 World Folkfest turns 40 in Springville
Three nights at Spring Acres Arts Park, Thursday through Saturday, with dance companies from Slovakia, Bolivia, Belgium, Korea and France plus the Trinity Irish dancers. Gates open at 5:30, a pre-show starts at 6:45, and the main show goes at 7:30. Tickets are $18 for ages 12 and up, $15 for seniors, students and military, $7 for kids 4 to 11, and $60 for a family pass covering two adults and four children.
Our take
Forty years in and the format has not needed fixing. Six companies, real costumes, live music, food trucks, and a park full of people who came to watch dancing they cannot name. Then it is gone until next summer, which is the whole reason to move on it this week. Park in the northeast lot of the high school, right in front of the Arts Park, and use 1300 East or 900 South for overflow.⚠️ Heads up: Seating is first come and the bleachers in back fill early. Everything in front of them is your own chair or blanket, so bring one even if you plan to sit high. Outside food is fine.
$ familiesartsSpringville
Music
Worth it
🎸 Queenadilla's album release lands at Velour Friday
Queenadilla plays its album release show at Velour on Friday with Homestyle Dinner Rolls and Atlas Slave opening. Doors and show run from 7:30, tickets are $12.24 all in, and it's all ages. Velour also runs open mic Wednesday and a four-band bill Thursday, so the room on University Avenue is busy every night this week.
Our take
Velour is the room where a long list of Utah bands played their first real show, and Friday it costs twelve bucks and change to stand in it. Three bands, all ages, an album played front to back. Bring the teenager who thinks nothing happens here.⚠️ Heads up: Velour is a small room with no reserved seats, so the ticket buys you a spot in the crowd rather than a chair.
$ musicall agesdowntown Provo
Community
Worth it
🎪 Lindon Days opens Saturday and runs a full week
Lindon kicks off its city celebration Saturday at City Center Park under the theme Stars, Stripes and Small Town Nights, and it runs through August 8. The lineup includes a grand parade, a family rodeo with mutton bustin', free swim nights, a movie in the park, the mayor's candy scramble, a car show, Huck Finn fishing, and fireworks. Nearly all of it is free.
Our take
Lindon runs the least self-important city celebration in the valley, and that is a compliment. No headliner, no gate, no parking fee, just a park and eight days of things for kids to do. If your city's celebration already came and went, borrow this one.⚠️ Heads up: It spreads across eight days and Saturday the 1st is the opening rather than the payoff, so the parade and fireworks land later in the run.
Free familiesfreeLindon
🏟️ The Scoreboard
The Royals just scored more goals than they ever have, and they're home Wednesday
Utah beat North Carolina 4-1 on Saturday in Cary, the most goals the club has scored in a single match. Kate Del Fava headed in a Nuria Rabano corner in the sixth minute, Rabano finished with two assists, and Mina Tanaka got her fifth of the season off a Cloe Lacasse ball. It's back-to-back wins and it puts them third in the league.
A red card in Portland flips RSL's lead to a second straight road loss
RSL led at Providence Park through Juan Manuel Sanabria's 19th-minute goal, set up by Morgan Guilavogui. Then Guilavogui was sent off for violent conduct in the 34th, Portland took it 2-1, and Salt Lake comes home with two losses on the trip.
The Bees end Omaha's win streak, then head for Texas
Saturday night at Daybreak the Bees beat the Omaha Storm Chasers 8-4 and snapped an eight-game Omaha win streak. Gavin Cross went 2 for 4 with a home run and stretched a career-best hitting streak to seventeen games. The homestand wrapped Sunday and the club is on the road the rest of the week.
🍴 Eat & Drink
Worth it Glade's Drive Inn, Spanish Fork
Glade's has been serving out of a walk-up window on Spanish Fork's Main Street since 1954, back when it was a converted gas station. Burgers, crinkle fries, fish and chips, and shakes thick enough to hold the spoon. The one thing to know before you order: they serve a white sauce instead of the pink fry sauce every other Utah counter puts in the bag.
Our take
A drive-in that has outlasted seventy years of chain burgers on the same street is doing something right, and here it is a sauce and a fryer. It also sits a couple of blocks up Main from the fairgrounds, so Wednesday's plan is done: burgers at the window, then walk into the free rodeo. Order the fish and chips if you want the sleeper.⚠️ Heads up: It's a window, not a dining room, and the line stretches toward half an hour when a ball team or the fair crowd hits at once.
$ burgerscheap eatsSpanish Fork
👨👩👧 Family & Free
Worth it
Lehi's Historical Marker Quest, free all summer
The Lehi Historical Society has 21 historical markers planted around town and a free passport that turns them into a summer-long scavenger hunt. Pick up the passport, drive or bike to each marker, take a photo of your kid at it, then bring the passport back to get it stamped. Finish the whole thing and you get a collector lapel pin.
Our take
It's the cheapest way we've found to turn a hot afternoon into something the kids actually remember. Twenty-one markers, one free passport, a lapel pin at the end, and it works in pieces, so you can knock out four markers on a Saturday morning and come back next week. Grade-school age is the sweet spot.⚠️ Heads up: The passport desk is only open Tuesday through Thursday, noon to five. Miss that window and you're waiting a week to start.
Free kidsfreeLehi
🎟️ Also Happening
🌎 Folkfest's free night in Orem
Dance companies perform Wednesday at Orem Civic Center Park at 5:45 and the Orem library auditorium at 6:30, no ticket needed.
🎻 Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives
The country hall-of-famer plays the Eccles Amphitheater Saturday night, up the canyon at Sundance.
🍑 Santaquin's orchard-town celebration begins
The south end kicks off its summer festival Saturday in Santaquin, carrying through August 8.
📰 Valley News
Lehi's Sky View district lines up its anchors
The Shops at Sky View is a 97-acre retail district going in just north of Timpanogos Highway on both sides of Center Street in Lehi, and the developers have now signed Target and Life Time as anchors. The plan calls for just under 300,000 square feet of retail, 307 homes on a 38-acre parcel to the north, and up to 316,000 square feet of office space to the west. The first phase is due in 2027. It sits below a stretch of Lehi that is about to get a new temple and more than 2,400 additional homes in a neighboring project, which is why the roads-and-schools question keeps following this corner of the county around.
BYU starts tearing down and rebuilding Wymount Terrace
BYU began work this month on replacing nine aging apartment buildings at Wymount Terrace with eleven new three-story ones. The replacements hold 240 two- and three-bedroom apartments for married students and students with children. The university says the project takes about two years and that every family affected has already been moved to comparable housing for the duration. Wymount is one of the few genuinely affordable family-housing options anywhere near central Provo, so what gets rebuilt there matters well beyond campus.
Deer Creek sits at about two-thirds full heading into August
Deer Creek Reservoir was holding roughly 98,000 acre-feet as of Sunday, about 64 percent of its capacity and around 79 percent of the normal storage for this date. State Parks listed it at 65 percent full last week with water temperature near 71 degrees and both the main and island boat ramps open. Jordanelle upstream is in better shape at roughly 219,000 acre-feet, about 90 percent of normal. Neither number is alarming for late July, but both are drifting down through the hottest stretch of the year, which is when the ramps and the shoreline start to change week to week.
The Debate
💙 Good Neighbor
Nominate the Valley's quiet MVPs
Every issue we spotlight one neighbor, teacher, coach, or cause quietly making the Valley better, plus an easy way to pitch in. Know someone who deserves it? Send them our way.
Nominate a neighbor →That's the week. Wednesday is the free double: burgers at the Glade's window, then the rodeo at the fairgrounds a couple of blocks down. Saturday you pick between Highland and Spanish Fork, and there's no wrong answer.
Tell us what we missed. Reply with the openings, events, and good-neighbor stories your corner of the Valley should know about.
Forward this to the friend who keeps saying nothing happens here after the Twenty-Fourth.
— The Provo FOMO crew
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