BANDALOOP

"The Sky is Not the Limit" is more than BANDALOOP's tagline—it's the visceral experience they deliver. In a fitting tribute to five decades of boundary-pushing artistry, the Oakland-based company will once again transform the striking 240-foot-high curving glass façade of the Salt Lake City Main Library into a breathtaking stage for aerial choreography—a site-specific spectacle that has become one of the Festival's most beloved and talked-about experiences.

A Perfect Anniversary Reunion

For over 34 years, BANDALOOP has activated more than 300 locations worldwide, from skyscrapers in Shanghai to natural rock formations in national parks. Yet the Salt Lake City Main Library holds a special place in their performance history, its modernist architecture uniquely suited to showcase the intersection of human movement and urban design.

BANDALOOP first headlined the Utah Arts Festival in 2005 and then again in 2013, captivating crowds with an 18-minute performance on the Main Library's dazzling glass facade. The Library, designed by internationally acclaimed architect, Moshe Safdie, opened in 2003, and while the Utah Arts Festival found its new home, it also discovered a perfect 6-story curving glass stage for a group like BANDALOOP. Their return in 2018 featured twice-daily shows throughout the Festival weekend—performances that the Salt Lake Tribune memorably described as dancers "jumping off the top of the Salt Lake City Library and dancing down its side."

Executive Director, Aimee Dunsmore, said, “As the Utah Arts Festival celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2026, I’m thrilled to have our boundary-pushing friends from BANDALOOP return to commemorate this milestone in the Festival’s history, which has included  bringing world-class experiences to our community.”

Performance Schedule

BANDALOOP will perform Thursday through Saturday (June 18-20, 2026), on the Salt Lake City Main Library's south-facing glass facade. Their performances last approximately 20 minutes each time. This is not to be missed!

Connecting to a Uniquely Utah Issue

In connection with Utahns wrestling with the plight of the Great Salt Lake, BANDALOOP’s current work ‘FLOCK’ traces the pathways of bird and human migration, waterways, and the lifelines that connect us all. They explore what it means to belong to a place and to each other with an athletic and poetic dance that plays with gravity, transforming walls, and embodying architecture with open air into landscapes of awe. “Emotional, kinetic, and breathtakingly alive, this work asks how spectacle can bring us into considered intimacy with ourselves, our communities, and our ecosystems,” according to the artist statement.

Co-directed by Melecio Estrella and Damara Vita Ganley, they lead an ensemble of extraordinary BANDALOOP dancers, Jose Abad, Rose Huey, B Dean, Jessica Swanson, Sarah Keeney, and Wailana Simcock, and feature original musical compositions by Ben Juodvalkis, Destani Wolf, Kevin Farrell and Kate Diaz.

About the Company

"At BANDALOOP, awe is an everyday occurrence," says Artistic Director Melecio Estrella. Founded by visionary choreographer Amelia Rudolph with dancers and climbers who "imagined a new way of moving through the world—one that invited curiosity, courage, and joy into vertical spaces," the company continues to redefine what dance can be.

BANDALOOP is recognized as a global innovator of vertical artistry, delivering on their mission to celebrate the human spirit, nature, and communities through dance that expands and challenges what is possible.

BANDALOOP is funded by the City of Oakland, The Bloomberg Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and a diverse set of individual donors, corporate sponsors and property stakeholders from around the world. @BANDALOOPING

• Rigging & Safety Team: Basil Tsimoyianis, Miranda Oakley, Winter Ramos, Brooke Anderson
• Creative and Executive Producer: Thomas Cavanagh
• Worldwide Representation: Sozo Impact