The Cedar Hills Family Festival, and how the week actually runs

At the turn of May into June, Saturday to Saturday, for about eight days. In 2026 it ran from Saturday, May 30 to Saturday, June 6, finishing on the second Saturday with the main day of program. The city publishes a fresh activity schedule for each edition rather than fixing the dates permanently, so the pattern is the thing to plan around and the exact days are the thing to confirm. Cedar Hills City takes questions about the week on 801-785-9668.

Across the eight days: live music, food vendors, activities on and around the park, a swim night and a Friday evening dinner. On the final Saturday: a 5K in the morning, a parade that forms at Deerfield Elementary and runs north up 4600 West, a car show on the amphitheater grounds from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., a carnival through the afternoon and evening, and an aerial finish with a drone show at about 9:45 p.m. followed by fireworks. Most of it is free to attend.

Over Mesquite Park, at the northern edge of the city, and not over the park where the rest of the day has been happening. The drone show flies from the same ground at about 9:45 p.m. on the final Saturday with a live band playing beneath it, and the fireworks follow at about 10 p.m. Anyone who settles in on the amphitheater grass at Heritage Park expecting the finale overhead is in the wrong place, and the streets around Mesquite are the tight ones for parking that evening.

Most of it. The parade, the car show, the live music, the drone show and the fireworks all cost nothing to attend. Three things carry a charge and they are consistent from year to year: the swim night, the Friday evening dinner and the carnival. The 5K carries an entry fee and is registered in advance. Food from the vendors is priced by the vendor. If the plan is to turn up and watch, the week is close to free; if the plan includes the ticketed fixtures, book those first.

The parade forms at Deerfield Elementary on the western side of the city, runs north along 4600 West to the roundabout, and finishes on Cedar Hills Drive near Heritage Park. Because 4600 West and Cedar Hills Drive carry most of the traffic in a city of 2.73 square miles, the roads on that line close and the practical approach is to park south of the route and walk in rather than to try crossing it during the morning.

For years. Cedar Hills runs it as its signature annual festival and reissues the activity schedule for each edition. The durable part is the shape of the week and the venues it uses; the exact times shift year to year. Cedar Hills City is the place to ask about the festival's history and to pick up the current schedule.

Across three grounds. Heritage Park at 4425 West Cedar Hills Drive is the anchor and carries the car show, the daytime program and most of the foot traffic. Mesquite Park at the northern edge of the city takes the drone show and the fireworks on the final Saturday. The residential streets are the third venue, carrying the 5K and the parade. There is no fairground or civic square in Cedar Hills, which is exactly why the published schedule matters more here than at a festival with a permanent site.

The car show runs on the amphitheater grounds at Heritage Park from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the final Saturday, and it is free for spectators to walk through. Entry for a vehicle is arranged through the festival committee rather than on the day, and the details are published with each year's activity schedule. Cedar Hills City is the contact point for it, and because the show sits inside a wider week the entry arrangements are reissued annually along with everything else.

There is, and it is the constraint rather than the distance. Heritage Park's own lot fills early on the main Saturday and the streets around it take the overflow, so the workable approach is to park a few blocks out and walk. During the parade the roads on the route close, which pushes everything south of the line. In the evening the pressure shifts north to the streets around Mesquite Park for the drone show and the fireworks, which is a different set of streets entirely.