September 1989 may turn out to be the busiest month yet in Moab.
Activities planned by various clubs, the National Park Service, Moab Chamber of Commerce, University of Utah and Grand County Travel Council promise 10 days jam-packed with artists, writers, musicians, opera and movie stars, horsemen, racers and jeepers from all over - not to mention mountain-bikers and other recreationists.Major events at the hub of all the activity include the first Moab Movie Jubilee, the first Arts Festival of the Canyonlands, the annual Labor Day Camp-out, ribbon cutting for a new southeast Utah center for advanced fine arts studies and anniversary celebrations of the Moab Film Commission and Canyonlands National Park.
Officials this week made final plans for a 3 p.m. ribbon cutting Saturday, Sept. 2, to christen the new University of Utah College of Fine Arts in Moab and erect a sign designating the facility the Helen M. Knight Studio-Conservatory.
Final touches were also being added to the first Arts Festival of the Canyonlands Sept. 2 and 3.
Both events coincide with 40th anniversary activities of the Moab Film Commission, which will shine the spotlight on the history of southeastern Utah movie-making Sept. 1-3 during the first Moab Movie Jubilee.
Activities of the jubilee alone include talent and variety shows, a movie star look-alike contest, a Dutch oven cook-out, picnic lunch, celebrity banquet, awards and autograph parties, a dance, live musical performances and other entertainment, tours to movie locations in the area and showings of movies made in Moab.
The arts festival, planned by the Canyonlands Arts Council, begins at noon Sept. 2 and will include exhibits of local and regional art, a special exhibit from the U., artist demonstrations and live musical performances.
The film commission has also booked a highly acclaimed country-western and rock band, "Sky Blue and the Ghost Riders," to play for a Saturday night dance at an open-air pavilion by the Colorado River.
Sept. 2 and 3, horseback riders will participate in the second annual LaSal Mountain Endurance Ride, sponsored by the Moab Chamber of Commerce.
Hundreds of four-wheel-drive enthusiasts will also be converging on Moab to join the Red-Rock 4-Wheelers Club Sept. 2-4 for the 16th annual Labor Day Camp-out - offspring of the Easter Jeep Safari.
Tuesday, Sept. 5, hobby stock-car racing will be held for the first fall season in five years at the Red Rock Speedway south of Moab.
Then on Sept. 6, the first of several educational-recreational programs planned by the Canyonlands Field Institute of Moab in conjunction with Canyonlands National Park's 25th anniversary will bring former Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall to address participants.
With that, Moab will slide toward a second weekend of celebration with the National Park Service and others rallying for the park commemoration. A highlight of the weekend will be two evening operas performed live in a sandstone alcove downriver from Moab in Canyonlands.
All in all, thousands of spectators and participants are expected to arrive in Moab for one event or another between Sept. 1 and 10.