Everyone’s invited to a big party at the Salt Lake City-County Building on Pioneer Day, to celebrate the final vote on awarding the 2034 Winter Games to Utah.
But there’s a catch, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall said at a Monday news conference announcing the event.
Because the International Olympic Committee is holding the July 24 vote in Paris, ahead of the start of the 2024 Summer Games, the festivities will start at 3 a.m. local time, when Gov. Spencer Cox, Mendenhall and other bid leaders make their final pitch in person for another Olympics.
And it may be another hour and a half before Utahns finally know if the more than a decade of bidding succeeds.
Regardless, the mayor pledged, “we’re going to party like ti’s 2002 right here on Washington Square,” promising food trucks and “lots of caffeinated beverages” to help celebrants stay awake in the pre-dawn hours. Many Utahns will already be downtown to claim seats along the route of the annual Pioneer Day Parade.
Big-screen TVs will be on site to broadcast what’s happening in the French capital, and the IOC will also see shots of the party.
“I want to hear all your cheers from Washington Square in Paris on July 24, when they vote yes,” Mendenhall said. recalling the “iconic celebration” back in 1995 when some 50,000 people gathered outside the historic building to hear the IOC award the 2002 Winter Games to Salt Lake City. “We’re going to need several thousand of you.”
Catherine Raney Norman, the chair of the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games that’s behind he bid, said the “Celebrate 2034″ party is an example of how another Olympics and Paralympics can bring Utahns together over the next decade. She suggested Utahns show up in their “best pajama outfits,” preferably in red, white and blue.
“I hope we will have people there to celebrate this opportunity, similar to what happened back in 1995. This is one of those iconic moments for our city and our state. So I hope that we will have a good turnout,” she said later. “We know that they love the Olympic and Paralympic movement, so we’re hopeful that they love it even that much at 3 a.m.”
The latest Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll found that 79% of Utahns support hosting the 2034 Winter Games. That level of backing for bringing back an Olympics has stayed consistent in previous polling for the news outlet and University of Utah institute.
“In 10 years, we’ll have the world here,” said Jeff Robbins, president and CEO of the Utah Sports Commission, a sponsor of the party he described as something Utahns will always remember. Robbins said he’s more than optimistic that the IOC vote will go Utah’s way.
Under the new, less formal selection process, Utah’s bid has no competition after being named the Switzerland-based IOC’s preferred host for 2034 late last year. In June, IOC leaders advanced the bid to the final vote of the full membership.
Mendenhall said it’s too soon to talk about what happens after that vote.
“We’re really trying not to get out ahead of our skis on organization. We need this vote to happen. We don’t take it for granted,” the mayor said. “When the vote happens, however it happens, we’ll be prepared to make those next steps of transitioning” to an organizing committee.
Besides the party at city hall, events marking the IOC’s decision are planned in other places around the state, including a festival on July 24 from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Utah Olympic Park near Park City that will feature free tickets to a freestyle show at the training pool.
Park City is also holding an Olympic celebration at 4 p.m. that day, as is Provo, at the Peaks Ice Arena. The Heber Valley’s Pioneer Day activities in Charleston will kick off with the raising of a SLC-UT flag at 6:45 a.m.
