A sprawling new music festival campus capable of drawing 75,000 fans in a single day could be coming to Draper, built on the site of Utah's former state prison. The Point of the Mountain State Land Authority has unanimously approved a conceptual application for the open-air festival grounds, which would occupy roughly 30 acres of the 600-acre redevelopment known as The Point.
The proposal comes from Blackwall Ventures, a Salt Lake City-based entertainment and development company that has formed a joint venture with The Point Partners, the development team working with the state land authority, according to Building Salt Lake. The festival grounds would sit at the southern end of the 600-acre site, distinct from an indoor 5,000-seat venue already under construction in Phase 1 through a partnership between The Point Partners and Oak View Group, which secured naming rights from Mountain America Credit Union earlier this year to become the Mountain America Event Center.
The Point Partners team includes Lincoln Property Company, Colmena Group, and Wadsworth Development Group, and the group serves as the development partner for the state land authority, per Building Salt Lake's reporting. The land authority itself, known by the acronym POMSLA, was created by the Utah State Legislature through House Bill 372 in May 2018 to manage and oversee development of the former prison property, according to the Point of the Mountain State Land Authority. Draper Mayor Troy Walker sits on the POMSLA board and told the outlet the project could bring a cultural feel to The Point, adding that it could eventually include Olympic-era ice and other activities.
A Site Cleared by the Prison's Move
The 600 acres opened up for redevelopment after the Utah Department of Corrections relocated roughly 2,460 incarcerated individuals from the 70-year-old Draper prison to a new $1 billion, 1.3 million-square-foot facility in Salt Lake City in July 2022, following a 2015 legislative mandate to move the prison, according to the Utah Department of Corrections. Utah broke ground on vertical construction for Phase 1 of the broader $2.3 billion mixed-use district in June, a project backed by $165 million in state infrastructure funding and projected to generate 46,500 jobs, per TechBuzz News. That first phase alone spans 99 acres and is set to include 2 million square feet of office space, more than 3,000 multi-family residential units, 450,000 square feet of retail and 16 acres of parkland, according to Utah Business.
The University of Utah and U of U Health also signed an agreement with the land authority in June to secure a permanent 46-acre footprint at The Point for a proposed regional healthcare campus, according to the university's health system. Between the housing, retail, healthcare and now the proposed festival grounds, the old prison yard is shaping up into one of the busiest patches of real estate along the Wasatch Front.
From Neon Trees Drummer to Festival Developer
Blackwall Ventures partner John Buckner has deep roots in Utah's music scene. He temporarily played drums for the band Neon Trees and later spent two years as the group's tour manager, per Building Salt Lake's account. In August 2017, Buckner helped put on the first LOVELOUD Festival alongside Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds, a sold-out show that drew more than 17,000 attendees to Brent Brown Ballpark in Orem, according to the LOVELOUD Festival. That sold-out debut, organized to support LGBTQ youth charities, is what sparked Buckner's idea of finding a larger urban festival location along the Wasatch Front, Building Salt Lake reports.
Fellow Blackwall Ventures partner Gustavo Velasquez pointed to Utah's growing population, its successful music festivals and the upcoming Olympics as reasons for his optimism about the project, the outlet reported. He also said people support an independently owned and operated local venue. A presentation to the land authority cited Kilby Block Party — which drew an estimated 90,000 cumulative attendees over three days at the Utah State Fairpark in May, according to the Daily Utah Chronicle — as evidence of growing local demand for large-scale festivals.
Bigger Than Any Stage Utah Has Now
If it reaches its projected scale, the festival campus would dwarf every existing outdoor concert venue in the state. Utah's primary dedicated outdoor concert venue, the Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre in West Valley City, holds between 20,000 and 25,000 attendees, according to Live Nation Special Events. Even Rice-Eccles Stadium at the University of Utah, which occasionally hosts stadium tours, seats 51,444 for major events, per University of Utah Athletics — well below the 75,000 daily attendees the Draper festival could draw by its fifth year.
Under the current proposal, first-year daily capacity would be capped at 40,000 attendees, per a slide deck presented to the land authority. The presentation named Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Morgan Wallen and Kendrick Lamar as examples of major touring acts that have passed over Utah, and organizers say the venue aims to attract large touring acts working in rock, pop and alternative genres. Beyond concerts, the site could also host Olympics-related events, farmers markets and carnivals.
Money, Tickets and What's Still Unresolved
Developers project the festival grounds could generate around $163.5 million in new tax revenue and roughly $3.9 billion in total economic impact over the proposed lease term, drawing just under six million attendees across that span, according to figures presented to POMSLA on August 10. Site improvements are expected to cost $19 million, financed through a privately imposed fee bond secured by different revenue streams rather than taxpayer money, Building Salt Lake reports; the festival proposal would not draw public funds to build the venue or pay for site improvements.
Ticketing would run through a proprietary system charging a 2% fee, alongside a venue fee set at 10% of ticket, merchandise and food and beverage sales — figures organizers say would result in cheaper tickets for fans compared with larger ticketing platforms, which can charge 30% or more in venue fees, per the POMSLA slideshow. Dan Reeve, another figure involved in the proposal, said the festival would fill a void in Utah's market. The Point Partners and Blackwall have assembled expert groups covering festival operations, promotions, security, parking and traffic, according to the outlet's reporting.
Plenty remains unsettled before any of this becomes reality. A lease agreement, development agreement and other terms still need to be finalized, and open questions include how traffic will be managed at the busy Salt Lake/Utah County border on festival days and how new residential units elsewhere in Phase 1 will coexist with high-decibel events. Per a July slideshow cited by Building Salt Lake, organizers are targeting August 2027 for the first music festival at the site, though that date depends on the remaining approvals coming together.
