The murals South Salt Lake
Around ninety walls since 2018, in the city's own arts district
Mural Fest and the creative zone
South Salt Lake's Creative Industries Zone runs from 2100 South down to Mill Creek along West Temple, a rectangle of working warehouse blocks just inside the city's northern line. Since 2018 the city's arts council has painted it at about ten murals a year, and the collection now numbers around ninety, free to walk any day. Here is the district, the one spring Saturday when the festival fills it, the five producers sharing the same half mile, and why none of it is the Granary District.
By Scott Buehler, Moving Utah
Updated October 2026
The short answer
South Salt Lake's Creative Industries Zone is a small grid of working warehouse blocks along West Temple, just inside the city's north line, and its walls carry around ninety murals painted since 2018. They sit on the outsides of buildings, so the whole collection is free to walk any day of the year, which is the reason to come in daylight. Once a year, on a single Saturday in the spring, South Salt Lake Arts turns the district into Mural Fest: new murals go up, the artists paint in the open, and a headquarters along the TRAX line adds food trucks, a beer garden and guided bike tours. The murals are the durable part; the festival is the one big day. Arrive by rail at Central Pointe if you can, because these blocks were laid out for freight, not for parking.
The creative zone in numbers
2018
the year Mural Fest started
90
murals installed by the ninth year
10 a year
the council's stated pace toward a hundred
5
breweries and distilleries on or beside West Temple
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The district
A designated district on blocks that still do industrial work
The Creative Industries Zone is a designation South Salt Lake put on a cluster of blocks it already had: cheap warehouse buildings with high ceilings and roller doors, the kind that once held storage and turn out to suit brewers, distillers, printers, makers and studios just as well. It runs from 2100 South down to Mill Creek along West Temple, between State Street and the railway, a small rectangle immediately inside the city's northern line.
The visible result is paint. South Salt Lake Arts, the city's arts council, started Mural Fest in 2018 with a founding goal of a hundred murals at about ten a year, and it has broadly held that rate. By the ninth year, in 2026, the count stood at ninety, and the council calls the city home to one of the largest collections of street art in Utah. Ninety works across a few dozen blocks makes that a fair claim.
None of it is behind a gate. The murals are on the outsides of working buildings, so the gallery keeps street hours, costs nothing, and is as available on a Tuesday in January as on festival day. One caveat worth knowing before you go chasing a particular piece: murals come down when buildings change hands or get torn down, so a wall you have seen in a photograph may no longer be there. And a couple of each year's newest pieces are painted with students at schools rather than in the district, so not every new mural is on these blocks.
The confusion worth clearing first
Two districts, two cities, and about a mile and a half between them
More writing about this area gets it wrong than gets it right, and it matters, because it puts businesses, prices and street conditions on the wrong side of a city line. Here is the difference in one table.
| The Granary District | The Creative Industries Zone | |
|---|---|---|
| Which city | Salt Lake City | South Salt Lake |
| Roughly where | South and west of downtown, around 600 to 900 South and 300 West | From 2100 South down to Mill Creek, along West Temple between State Street and the railway |
| What the name means | The flour mills and grain elevators that once stood on the ground | A city designation for a cluster of creative and small production businesses |
| The public art there | Individual works and a city owned block with its own history | Around ninety murals installed through an annual program since 2018 |
| Who to ask | Salt Lake City and its own arts programs | South Salt Lake Arts, the city's arts council |
| Where to read about it | The Salt Lake City companion on The Local | This page |
If an address you have read about sits on 800 South, it is in the other city and the other district.
One link, so the other district is one click away rather than a guess. The Granary District has its own researched page on this site, covering what is actually there, what the city owns and what has been torn down. It is at the Granary District page. Everything on this page is the other district, in the other city, on different streets.
The one big day
Mural Fest is a Saturday, and the rest of the year is the gallery
The festival is the one day the district rearranges itself around people instead of deliveries. It lands on a single Saturday in the spring, early May in recent years, and it is free. The arts council opens a headquarters along the TRAX line near Central Pointe, the ten or so new murals for the year go up that week with the artists painting on the walls in the open, and the day itself carries a mainstage, food trucks, a beer garden, street performers and guided bike tours. Arrival by train, streetcar or bicycle is pushed hard in the council's own material, which tells you something honest about what parking is like on the day.
One detail worth carrying if you are working from the map: some years a couple of the new pieces are painted with students at schools rather than on the warehouse blocks, so the newest murals are not always where the rest of them are.
Attending is free. What the festival buys you that an ordinary Tuesday does not is the artists themselves, working on walls in the open, and a district with something on every corner. What an ordinary Tuesday buys you that the festival does not is space, quiet and the room to stand back far enough to photograph a wall four stories high without somebody in front of it. Both are worth doing, and they are genuinely different visits.
The date moves every year, so take it from the arts council rather than from a listing. Mural Fest lands in the spring each year, and the specific Saturday changes. Listing sites carry old dates and old times long after the council has published the new ones. South Salt Lake Arts, at 220 East Morris Avenue, publishes this year's date, the headquarters address and the full program.
What else is on those blocks
Five producers inside about half a mile of each other
The murals are the reason to come in daylight; the production rooms are the reason a lot of people come back in the evening. Five sit on or beside West Temple within about half a mile of each other. Rosters in a district of short leases and shared buildings do change, so confirm any one of them is still trading and still open at the hour you want before you set out.
| The producer | Where | What that means for the walk |
|---|---|---|
| Grid City Beer Works | 333 West 2100 South | At the northern edge of the district, on the city line, so it is the natural first or last stop from Central Pointe |
| SaltFire Brewing | 2199 South West Temple | A block into the zone proper, on the main north to south walking line through it |
| Beehive Distilling | 2245 South West Temple | Spirits rather than beer, which in Utah means a different license category and different rules in the room |
| Shades Brewing | 154 West Utopia Avenue | Around the corner off West Temple, so it is the one people miss if they walk in a straight line |
| Level Crossing Brewing | 2496 South West Temple | The southern end of the run, about half a mile from the northern one |
Utah license categories differ between a brewery taproom and a distillery and change what may be served and how, so read each venue's own page rather than assuming the rules carry across.
A district where the art is free and permanent and the drinks are ticketed by the hour is one you should walk in that order.
How to walk it
Arrive by rail, start at the top, and work south
Central Pointe station sits at the northern end of the district, which removes the parking problem entirely and is the reason the arts council pushes rail arrival on festival day. From there the walk is essentially one long block of West Temple heading south, with detours east and west where the map shows a cluster. Half a mile covers the producers; the murals spread wider than that and reward a longer loop.
Three practical notes about the ground. Sidewalks are inconsistent and stop altogether on some frontages, so daylight and sensible shoes matter more here than the map suggests. The blocks are long by any standard other than this valley's. And weekday mornings are the district at work, with reversing trucks and blocked frontages, which makes a weekend afternoon or a weekday evening a materially better walk.
If you are combining this with anything else in the city, two easy pairings sit a short distance away. The S-Line streetcar starts from the same Central Pointe station, and you can read how it runs from this end on the S-Line streetcar page. The Commonwealth Room music hall, at 195 West Commonwealth Avenue, is opposite the usual festival headquarters. The city's creek park and the county library on the eastern side of the city are a different trip on a different day.
Use the published map, not an address list. South Salt Lake Arts publishes an interactive map of the murals and a self guided tour, and it archives the collection through the Public Art Archive. Working from that is much faster than trying to find painted walls from a written list, because a mural's spot is a building wall rather than a street number and several of them face parking lots and side alleys rather than the road.
Keep reading
More of South Salt Lake on The Local
Things to do
The top 8, ranked
Murals on working walls, a 650 capacity hall, a streetcar, and a creek nobody notices.
Read the guideThe park
Fitts Park and Mill Creek
Ten acres, three creeks, the oldest trees in the city, and a garden you apply for.
Read the guideThe streetcar
The S-Line, from this end
Two miles, seven stops, four of them here, and a linear park running the whole length.
Read the guideThe river
The Jordan River edge
A 75 acre natural area, a free bird center, and the quietest edge of a loud city.
Read the guideMoving here
An inner ring address
Named avenues instead of numbers, and a town that incorporated over a sewer bill.
Read the guideThe companion
South Salt Lake, the whole picture
The murals, the creek park, the streetcar, the river edge and the address, in one place.
Read the pageQuick answers
The murals, answered
Around ninety, and climbing. South Salt Lake Arts began Mural Fest in 2018 with a founding goal of a hundred murals at roughly ten a year, and it has held that pace: by the ninth year, in 2026, the count reached ninety. The city calls the result one of the largest collections of street art in Utah, and walking the blocks, that holds up. They are painted on the outsides of working buildings, so you can see the whole collection free, any day of the year.
It runs from 2100 South down to Mill Creek along West Temple, between State Street and the railway. In plain terms that is a rectangle of warehouse and light industrial blocks just inside the city's northern line, with Central Pointe station at its top corner. It is a designation rather than a fenced district, so the edges shade into ordinary industrial streets rather than stopping at a sign.
No, and this is the most common mix-up. The Granary District is inside Salt Lake City, roughly between 600 South, the interstate and West Temple, about a mile and a half north. The Creative Industries Zone is South Salt Lake's own designation and begins where the other city ends, at the 2100 South line. Two districts, two cities, two arts programs, and two separate pages on this site.
A single Saturday in the spring, early May in recent years. The arts council sets up a headquarters along the TRAX line near Central Pointe, the new murals go up that week with the artists painting in the open, and the day itself brings a mainstage, food trucks, a beer garden and guided bike tours. The date moves from year to year, so take this year's Saturday and headquarters address from South Salt Lake Arts.
No. The festival is free to attend, and so is seeing the murals on any other day, because they sit on the outsides of buildings and the gallery keeps street hours. What costs money on the day is food, drink and anything you buy from a vendor, and the beer garden runs under the usual Utah rules. The guided bike tours are part of the free program.
Use the arts council's own interactive map and self guided tour rather than a list of addresses. A mural's spot is a building wall rather than a street number, and plenty of them face parking lots, loading yards and side alleys instead of the road, so a written list walks you past several without seeing them. The collection is also archived through the Public Art Archive if you want to look before you travel.
Five producers sit on or beside West Temple within about half a mile: Grid City Beer Works at 333 West 2100 South, SaltFire Brewing at 2199 South West Temple, Beehive Distilling at 2245 South West Temple, Shades Brewing around the corner at 154 West Utopia Avenue, and Level Crossing Brewing at 2496 South West Temple. Hours vary, and several rooms open only in the late afternoon, so check before you go.
It is a working light industrial district rather than a pedestrian precinct, and the practical issues are physical: sidewalks that stop on some frontages, long blocks, and delivery traffic using the same corners you are. Daylight, sensible shoes and a route picked off the published map handle all three. Weekday mornings are the busiest for freight, so weekend afternoons and weekday evenings make for a better walk.
Easily, and it is the better way to do it. Central Pointe station sits at the northern corner of the district and is served by all three TRAX lines and by the S-Line streetcar, so most of the valley reaches it without a transfer. From the platform the district is a walk south down West Temple. The arts council pushes rail and bicycle arrival on festival day because parking on those blocks is limited on an ordinary day and much worse on that one.
A district you can walk is a different neighbor from one you drive past
Around ninety murals, five production rooms and a rail interchange inside the same half mile is a specific kind of address, and it comes with specific tradeoffs: warehouse frontages, freight movements and blocks that were laid out for trucks rather than for strollers. Tell me what you are weighing and I will put you with a Salt Lake County partner agent who works these streets, and stay on the file for the homework and the financing side.
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