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Midvale Journal

Goat yoga, music and more at Midvale City’s Harvest Days

Jul 01, 2019 03:50PM ● By Sarah Morton Taggart

Hundreds enjoy live music at Midvale City Park during Harvest Days in 2018. (Photo courtesy Midvale City)

By Sarah Morton Taggart | [email protected]

Midvale residents have enjoyed Harvest Days for 81 years. Just like that first celebration, this year’s festival includes a parade and will end with fireworks. But the 2019 Harvest Days will offer something new: yoga with goats.

The baby goats add a fun, playful aspect to yoga. The goats will frolic, snooze, and perhaps climb on participants as they stretch and tone muscles while being guided through yoga poses. All experience levels are welcome — more practiced yogis are welcome to try the more difficult poses while beginners can just play with the goats if they want.

“Some of the goats just like to cuddle and some are very active, jumping from person to person,” said Randee Westover, one of the co-founders of Goga, the local company that will provide the experience. “We have many people come that have never done yoga and they all loved it. It’s a pretty basic routine because we want the goats to be able to interact with the people.”

There will be two sessions of baby goat yoga on Saturday, Aug. 3 at 6:30 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. Forty minutes of yoga will be followed by plenty of time to take selfies with the goats. The cost to participate is $10 and spots are limited to ensure a proper goat-to-participant ratio, so people are encouraged to sign up at www.MidvaleHarvestDays.com.

All other Harvest Days activities are free and open to all. With the exception of the parade and the neighborhood block parties, all activities will take place at Midvale City Park (450 W. 7500 South). Harvest Days usually takes place during the first full week of August, but since that would have it compete with other big community celebrations in northern Utah, the festivities have been moved up one week.

The celebration kicks off on Thursday, Aug. 1 with free Bingo in the Bowery with lots of fun prizes. As with previous years, the Midvale Precinct Chief of Police will call out the bingo numbers. 

On Friday, Aug. 2 the Midvale Arts Council’s summer concert series will be wrapping up with music from Channel Z, an 80’s pop/new wave/rock metal band. After the performance, there will be a free screening of the Disney movie “Cars 3.” Kids are encouraged to pretend the park is a drive-in movie theater and there will be a contest to determine the best decorated cardboard box car.

The Harvest Days Festival will take place all day on Saturday, Aug. 3, starting with a parade and pancake breakfast, and of course, the goat yoga. The parade will begin at Copperview Elementary (8449 S. Monroe St.) at 10 a.m. and end at Midvale City Park. Food and other vendors, bounce houses and a petting zoo for the kids as well as other activities will be available throughout the day. 

Yoga with baby goats will be offered for the first time as part of the Harvest Days activities on Saturday, Aug. 3. (Photo courtesy Goga)

To help keep a lively atmosphere, DJ Cooper Brown will spin music starting at 11 a.m. “That was my favorite part of the day, watching the kids dancing with the DJ,” said Laura Magness about last year’s Harvest Days. Magness is chair of the 2019 Harvest Days Committee and communications specialist for Midvale City. 

The festivities will continue on Saturday with the Tom Petty tribute band, Petty Theft - San Francisco Tribute to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Local band Salt Rock City will open starting at 5:30 p.m.

Prior to the main event, neighborhood block parties are a unique element of Harvest Days. They will take place in various neighborhoods on July 29, 30 and Aug. 5 and feature a variety of activities. Some have bounce houses for the kids, music or potluck dinners. Some groups choose to close a neighborhood street while others hold events at city parks or in a neighbor’s yard.

“Each neighborhood puts on its own little party,” said Magness. She has a favorite memory of one party where members of the fire department showed up and sprayed water to cool off the kids, then played a game of soccer with the youth.

The parties are organized through the police department and are part of the National Night Out program. A goal of the program is to encourage neighbors to get to know each other and promote police-community partnerships. Residents wishing to host their own Harvest Days Neighborhood Block Party are encouraged to contact Lori Shaw at the Unified Police Department.

Chad Ivie is block captain of the Pepperidge Subdivision Neighborhood Watch and is organizing his second block party this year. His advice for others wishing to host: “Get out and meet your neighbors. Join community events such as neighborhood watch meetings and social media neighborhood groups.”