Tucked into the foothills of the Wasatch Range at the mouth of Red Butte Canyon, the Red Butte Garden Amphitheatre is the outdoor concert venue of Red Butte Garden and Arboretum, a 100-acre botanical garden operated by the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Since 1985 the Garden has drawn visitors for its themed display gardens and hiking trails, but summer evenings belong to music.
The Garden’s Outdoor Concert Series began modestly in 1987 with just a handful of Sunday evening shows and has grown into one of Utah’s most cherished summer traditions. Fans spread blankets and low-back lawn chairs across the natural, grassy amphitheatre bowl for a general-admission experience that blends live music with mountain scenery, drawing touring acts across folk, rock, jazz, and pop each season.
Stats at a Glance
- Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
- Type: Outdoor lawn amphitheatre at a botanical garden
- Opened: Garden opened 1985; concert series began 1987
- Capacity: About 3,000
- Operator: University of Utah
- Famous for: Rain-or-shine lawn concerts beneath Red Butte Canyon
The Concert Experience
Unlike a typical arena or club, the Red Butte Garden Amphitheatre is entirely lawn seating on a gently sloped natural bowl, so concertgoers bring their own blanket or a low-back chair and claim a spot for the evening. Shows run general admission and, per the Garden’s own guidance, tickets are in high demand: more than 12,000 members compete for roughly 3,000 available seats each show, and the series proceeds rain or shine, with only severe weather causing pauses or delays.
Because the venue sits at the mouth of Red Butte Canyon in the Wasatch foothills, evenings can turn breezy and cool even after a warm summer day, part of the appeal for an audience that treats each concert as much as a garden outing as a show.
History and Growth
The concert series traces back to 1987, when the Garden hosted just four or five alfresco summer shows on Sunday evenings. By 1988 the schedule had grown to six Sunday concerts, and season tickets sold for about $20. Over nearly four decades the series expanded into a full summer lineup of dozens of shows, pausing only in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic before resuming.
Today the amphitheatre is a fixture of Red Butte Garden and Arboretum, the largest botanical garden in the Intermountain West, which itself grew out of plant research started on University of Utah land by botanist Walter P. Cottam in 1930 and was formally opened to the public in 1985.
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Red Butte Garden Amphitheatre FAQs
How many people does the Red Butte Garden Amphitheatre hold?
The amphitheatre holds about 3,000 people, all on lawn seating rather than fixed seats.
When did the Red Butte Garden Outdoor Concert Series start?
The series began in 1987 with a handful of Sunday evening summer concerts and has grown into a full seasonal lineup since.
Do I need to bring my own seating to a Red Butte Garden concert?
Yes, the venue is a grassy amphitheatre bowl, so attendees typically bring a blanket or a low-back lawn chair.
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Photo: Daderot / CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.