This summer marked the second year of Heber’s Red, White and Blue Festival, a lineup of events for the community to celebrate the Fourth of July from dawn till dark.
Heber Valley Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Dallin Koecher said the event has revitalized the holiday for locals and visitors alike.
“You know, working in the Visitors’ Center for the last ten-plus years, we’d have visitors come in and say, ‘What’s going on in Heber for the Fourth of July?’ And we’d have to give them this blank stare,” he said. “But then we decided to create an event for the Fourth of July, and it’s the Red, White and Blue Festival.”
The event is a collaborative effort by the Chamber of Commerce, local charities and nonprofits, and local government entities.
Koecher said he’s impressed by this year’s turnout.
“We have some preliminary data from a source called Placer.ai that looks at cell phone data,” he said. “And that showed that throughout the course of the day, we had 7,000 people who attended the event.”
Independence Day may have been particularly busy, but Koecher said summer tourism overall is doing well, too. He said visitation numbers are leveling out into a “new normal” after an initial travel surge following the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“People got out, did their thing, and now they’re starting to get back to this new pace of travel,” he said. “And I think we’re seeing that in Heber Valley. Good things are happening, though – still a lot of boats and trailers going down Main Street to get to the wilderness and to the lake.”
Information about upcoming events in the Heber Valley is available on the chamber’s website.
