The Meat & Metal Guild

Grillfest

Grillfest is a two-day music and food festival held annually on Midvale’s Historic Main Street in Utah. Originally founded as a small backyard gathering for local metal and rock bands, the festival was revived in 2025 as a professionally produced city-scale event, bringing live music, food vendors, and cultural programming into a walkable downtown setting.

Held each August, Grillfest serves as The Meat & Metal Guild’s flagship program—the primary platform through which the Guild supports independent music, activates public space, and builds community around shared cultural experiences. The festival anchors the Guild’s mission by providing paid performance opportunities for bands, visibility for local vendors, and a scalable model for arts-driven placemaking.

2025 highlights include:

• 2-day festival on Midvale’s Historic Main Street
• 12 performing bands from Utah and out of state
• Multiple food vendors and artisan booths
• City-scale street activation in partnership with the City of Midvale
• Finished within 100 tickets of venue capacity in its first year back, with only four months of planning runway
• Earned media coverage including The Salt Lake Tribune, Standard-Examiner, Bravewords.com, and many other regional and national outlets

Grillfest is both a proven event and a foundation for future Guild programming, demonstrating the organization’s capacity to plan, produce, and execute complex cultural events in partnership with artists, businesses, and municipalities.

Emerging Programs

Future Initiatives

The Guild is exploring additional programs aligned with its mission; these initiatives are currently in early development.

• Youth music and culinary workshops
• Battle-of-the-bands programming
• Cultural education and community events