Cedar City Birthday Celebration Wraps Up Tonight

Having survived what most would consider a contentious election cycle, it's time to unwind and have a celebration, don't you think? Well, for those of us who live in Cedar City, the community has had such a celebration going on all weekend, and the festivities culminate tonight.

Cedar City celebrates its founding with an annual birthday celebration that brings the community together to honor its rich history and culture. Cedar City was established in 1851 by Mormon pioneers who set up an iron works in the area, giving the city one of its its nicknames, “The Gateway to Iron County.” The birthday celebration typically includes activities that highlight Cedar City’s heritage and local traditions. Plus, we also celebrate the Veterans from our area who have sacrificed so much for us.

Scott Phillips, a member of the Cedar City Council, also serves on the Cedar City Historic Preservation committee, and that committee was charged with putting together our birthday celebration.

Scott was on the radio with us this morning. He was joined by Steve Shirts who directs the Cedar City Community Band. The band will be giving a concert tonight as part of the festivities.

“Believe it or not, Cedar City was founded 173 years ago on November 11th. Just happens to coincide with Veterans Day,” Phillips said. He also recalled the events that started on Friday night. “It actually started Friday night. We had a big game night with family night over at the Frontier Homestead (State Park) and it was great. Great fun. Bingo. Pick up sticks, jacks. All those old fashioned games. Saturday we unveiled a statue of George a wood right near the train depot where he helped build that building and design it and a lot of buildings around Cedar City. And last night we had a fabulous veteran's day concert by the master Singers. I mean, it was very special,”

And as for what will happen this evening Phillips told us, “tonight we cap it all off with our very special veteran's day program and birthday celebration at the Heritage Theater at 7:00. All of this is free, so come on out.”

Shirts mentioned the importance of a community band, and what they are trying to bring to the area, remembering the impact community bands had in days past. “It was all the musicians in town. My my grandfather, Amos Wesley Hall, had a band over in Escalante and he was a violin player. And hopefully we can we can kind of bring that back and we can have a good time,” Shirts said.

Phillips told us some of the people who will be participating in the program tonight at the Heritage Theater. “Well, we've got people are going to know Michael Barr certainly. And the new artistic director, John Di Antonio. There are a couple of our actors in the radio show along with Melinda Pfundstein. Kevin Koontz is going to be our Foley artist tonight. That's the gentleman that makes all the sound effects and then Marlo Ihler is singing for us tonight. And of course, Steve shirts, (and) an amazing Cedar City community band.”

SUU President Mindy Benson will also be speaking about the history of Southern Utah University, and the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah will make a presentation on the history and contributions of Native Americans to our area and will also have a musical presentation.

The program will conclude with a tribute to the men and women of the armed services who have served us and continue to serve from our area.

And after the program, everyone is invited to the Heritage Theater Lobby for free birthday cake! Sounds like a pretty good way to celebrate the community, and put the stress of the election behind us. You can listen to our visit with Scott Phillips and Steve Shirts below.