Golden Onion Days, and the five days it takes from the town

Golden Onion Days runs five days over Labor Day weekend, finishing on the Labor Day Monday rather than sitting in the middle of a long weekend. It opens with a free concert at the Peteetneet schoolhouse on the Thursday evening. Exact dates and start times move a little each year, so confirm the coming year's schedule with Payson City or the organizer before you plan a trip around it.

The week runs a parade through downtown, a carnival at Memorial Park, a car show, an art show, a flower show, a baby contest, a 5K and a 10K, food and craft vendors with a boutique in the park, fireworks after dark, and the free opening concert on the Thursday. The city runs it as a list of pieces rather than an hour by hour timetable, and it puts out a printed celebration booklet with the running order, which is the thing to find if you are traveling for one specific event.

It was first held in 1929. The town launched it to bring residents and former residents back together, and named it for the onions the ground around the city was known for growing. It began as the Onion Harvest and Homecoming and was later renamed Payson City Golden Onion Days. There is no firm year on that renaming, so the honest answer is that nobody knows exactly when it changed.

You will see that claim in a lot of places, but it is more than anyone can actually prove, and Payson City does not make it. What holds up is the 1929 founding date, which makes it one of the longest running community celebrations in this part of the state, whatever the exact ranking turns out to be.

Mostly. The opening concert at the Peteetneet schoolhouse is free, the parade is free to watch, the fireworks are free, and there is no admission charge to the park or the shows. What costs money is the carnival rides, entry to the competitions and the races, and whatever you buy from the vendors. That makes it an unusually cheap five days out by the standards of anything comparable in Utah County.

Across three spots within about a mile of each other. Memorial Park on South Main carries the carnival, the vendors, and the fireworks. The Peteetneet grounds, on the hill at the east end of the old grid, carry the opening concert and the car, flower, and art shows. The parade runs through downtown Payson, and the 5K and 10K start near Payson City Center. Confirm exact addresses and times in the current year's program.

It comes and goes. A demolition derby is part of the celebration's long history, which is why people still ask, but it is not a fixed part of every year's lineup. If a listing shows one, treat it as something to confirm rather than count on, and check the current year's program from the city before you plan a trip around it.

It takes the middle of the old grid for most of a week. The carnival occupies Memorial Park for the duration, the parade closes streets across the center of town on its morning, and the fireworks bring a crowd to the same few blocks after dark. Anybody with an address on the grid plans errands around it or joins in. It is also the third takeover of that same park in eight weeks, after a Scottish festival in July and the salmon supper on the first Friday of August.

Two other traditions on the same lawn. The Payson Scottish Festival runs two days in July with free admission. The Payson Salmon Supper runs on the first Friday of August, is ticketed in advance, and tends to sell out. Between those two and Golden Onion Days, three separate takeovers of Memorial Park account for about eight days of the year, so if you are visiting in summer it is worth checking which weekend you are landing on.