Art Fest Weekend

This coming weekend, August 1st, 2nd and 3rd is the annual Park City Arts Festival. This is such a great event with Main Street being turned into one big party. As with many events in park city, Main Street is closed to all vehicles, and vendors from all around the country set up tents to display their wears. Entry into our Arts Festival is limited and the competition to be allowed to participate is fierce. Judges from the Kimball Arts Center begin reviewing applicants during the winter months and by early spring have made their selection as to who they will allow in the year’s festival. With our close proximity to Salt Lake City and the cooler mountain temperatures a large number of Salt Lake City visitors make the drive up to partake in the festival. Friday night has become an advanced showing for the locals and is a terrific party. Everyone we know is out on the street looking at the art and drinking wine in an uncrowded and less hectic atmosphere. Saturday and Sunday is the main festival and we typically draw about 100,000 visitors for this.

Last week wrapped up the girls Fast Pitch Softball Tournaments here in town. This was a three week event featuring teams from all over the country and was, as usual, a huge success. At the ski resorts the lifts are running for hiking and lift-serve mountain biking. And as I mentioned last week, the trails are beautiful with lush foliage and wild flowers.
We are definitely seeing an increase in activity in real estate. Not only have I been seeing an increase in calls and interest from buyers, in looking at the daily sales sheets from the board of realtors, the number of sales has increased dramatically in the last couple of weeks. As the summer wanes and we get closed to fall, we typically do see an increase in business as people are looking to pick up their property for next winter’s ski vacations. Even though much of the news these days is filled with stories about how difficult it is to obtain financing, which while it is certainly more difficult than in past years, financing is obtainable for qualified buyers. Interest rates are low and combined with a wide variety of available vacation homes, buyers are feeling that this is the time to purchase