Taste of Orem is coming back to City Center Park on September 19, running from noon to 8 p.m. with a lineup that blends restaurant sampling, live bands, and cultural dance performances. Pre-sale ticket sheets are already discounted for those who plan, and organizers say the event is designed to bring together local restaurants, flavors, and cultures all in one place.
According to a video announcement from City of Orem Government on Facebook, this year's festival returns to the same downtown park that hosted its debut. Pre-sale food ticket sheets are available now at orem.gov/taste, and per the official event rules published on the City of Orem website, they run $31 for 20 tickets and $56 for 40 tickets through September 18, 2026. Prices jump to $35 and $65 on the day of the event. Restaurant booths at Taste of Orem do not accept cash, credit cards, or Venmo — attendees redeem one to five tickets per mini-entree sample instead. Any unused tickets are non-refundable but can be donated to the Orem Community Fund or left as tips for vendors, per the same city rules.
A Second Year for Orem's Newest Fall Tradition
This is only the event's second run. The festival originally debuted on September 19–20, 2025, as a joint partnership between the city and the Utah Live Concerts Foundation, featuring 20 local restaurants and 18 live bands across two stages, according to the Utah Live Concerts Foundation. That inaugural pairing of food sampling with live music set the template for what the city now plans to repeat and grow at City Center Park.
Last year's event also featured a dedicated cultural stage, with performances from Haitian dancers, the Garden Valley Pipe Band, Chilean folk performers, and Polynesian dancers from Ali'itasi Productions, according to a City of Orem Government Facebook post from September 2025. Those multicultural acts reflect the diversity of Utah County residents who turn out for the city's food-focused gathering.
City Center Park's Built-In Amenities
The festival's home base, City Center Park at 300 East Center Street, includes an outdoor performance stage built with CARE tax funds and the award-winning All-Together Playground, an all-abilities play space for kids. The park already serves as Orem's central hub for citywide celebrations, including its seasonal Farmers Market.
That CARE tax — short for Cultural Arts & Recreation Enrichment — is a 0.1% local sales tax equal to one cent per $10 spent, and it helps fund cultural celebrations like Taste of Orem, according to reporting by the Daily Herald. Orem voters originally approved the tax back in 2005 and renewed it through March 2034.
Part of a Bigger Push for Community Events
Behind the scenes, the city treats events like Taste of Orem as serious operational undertakings. Orem City Council meeting records from January 2026 show that the city creates 30-to-35-page Incident Action Plans for major events to coordinate emergency medical response, police staffing, and public safety across departments.
The festival also fits into a broader civic strategy. In a July 2025 message to residents, Orem Mayor Dave Young said the city expanded its Communications and Events teams to double down on community festivals, pointing to Oremfest's record 50,000 attendees on a single Saturday in 2025 as evidence of the payoff. Orem, which had a population of 98,129 as of the 2020 census with a median age of just 27.2 years, has leaned into family-oriented gatherings under its self-styled “Family City USA” branding.
Notably, Taste of Orem itself grew out of an earlier rebranding effort. Orem's flagship summer festival was renamed from Summerfest to Oremfest in 2022 after the city received a trademark cease-and-desist letter from Milwaukee World Festival Inc., according to Wikipedia, prompting local leaders to build out distinct secondary events like Taste of Orem rather than fight over the old name.
