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9:29 p.m. • As the sun sets over Library Square and Washington Square, the sounds get more amplified across the 2016 Utah Arts Festival, and people start to pick a stage to sit and enjoy the performances.

On the Festival Stage, Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company served up modern dance for audiences that may not know a pas de deux from a papaya. Most impressive was the troupe's final number, with six dancers in gray and blue unitards, moving to the electronic music produced live onstage by the Salt Lake Electric Ensemble.

Over at the Park Stage, as Ririe-Woodbury was finishing up, the roots-rock sounds of Utah band Chris Orrock and the Lazlos were finding an appreciative audience.

Meanwhile, on the Amphitheatre Stage, another Utah band, the alt-country faves Triggers & Slips, were warming up the crowd.

Attendance figures for Thursday aren't in yet, but it feels like officials' predictions that a free-admission day would produce Saturday-sized crowds were accurate. With the heat subsiding, those crowds were enjoying an entertaining night.

5:44 p.m. • In a Utah Arts Festival loaded with street art — from breakdancers to stilt-walkers to electronic music experimenters — this is taking the phrase to a different place.

Festival attendees are invited to leave their (temporary) mark on a white car parked on 200 East — donated for the occasion by Mark Miller Subaru, one of the festival's sponsors.

Using dry-erase markers, people can write or draw whatever they want on the car. (Volunteers are patrolling the car, occasionally cleaning off areas for new drawings to be placed.)

Many people have written their names. Some have colored pictures. Occasionally, a bit of poetry or philosophy emerges — like when someone wrote "Kisses are like salt water: The more you drink, the more you thirst."

4:08 p.m. • Jeweler Anna Gieselman found inspiration buzzing around in her own backyard.

Gieselman, one of the artists at the 2016 Utah Arts Festival's Artists Marketplace, started raising bees a few years ago in her backyard garden in Austin, Texas.

"I'm a big gardener, and they improve your yield," Gieselman said, adding that she also had read about colony collapse disorder, a condition that has decimated the world's bee population.

Gieselman took a two-day course on beekeeping, and bought some bees and a hive. "It was a steep learning curve," she said. Now she has 15 hives, and runs an apprenticeship program.

The second spring in her beekeeping journey, she noticed the bees swarming. What they were swarming around was a sac containing a new queen bee. Gieselman was warned that having two queens would be bad news for her hive, so she cut down the sac and made a cast of it.

That was the start of her Bee Amour line of jewelry. Some of the pieces are inspired by beehives, with hexagonal patterns. Some, though, are cast from actual pieces of honeycomb.

It's a laborious process. She takes a piece of honeycomb, shaves off the top layer, coats the rest in nail polish, then makes a plaster cast using the "lost wax" technique. The honeycomb material is quite delicate, and sometimes the walls of each cell are too thin to work well with metal. In all, about one in five attempts is successful.

Gieselman's pieces, in silver or in brass with gold-fill chain, range from $32 to $108.

3:18 p.m. • The Garage on Beck, the bar and music venue on Salt Lake City's northern edge, is serving a distinctly Utah treat at the Utah Arts Festival: Fried funeral potatoes.

The deep-fried balls are crunchy on the outside, but have that familiar creamy comfort-food taste inside.

The potato balls come either traditional or vegetarian (with bacon or without). Five balls, and a side of ranch dressing for dipping, cost $8.

2:50 p.m. • People in the City Library atrium, ducking inside to escape the heat at the Utah Arts Festival, were probably not expecting a serenade from the second floor.

But that's what baritone Markel Reed gave them, singing arias and show tunes from the study area along the library's outside wall to the people below.

"This is a beautiful space," Reed said after performing three sets. "Singing from a balcony is ideal, really."

The program, called "Random Acts of Opera," was organized by Utah Opera to bring a little classical singing to people who might not get to a concert hall.

Reed and accompanist Emily Williams presented a variety of works, from Mozart's "Don Giovanni" and Puccini's "La Boheme" to numbers from "My Fair Lady," "Carousel" and "South Pacific."

"Some people think of opera as inaccessible," said Reed, 30. "My goal is so they see someone relatable in front of them."

More "Random Acts of Opera" will happen Friday and Saturday, at noon and 1 p.m., in the City Library atrium.

1:20 p.m. • Chad Farnes' art will stick around awhile.

The 30-year-old artist from Salt Lake City, displaying his work at the Utah Arts Festival for the first time, creates intricate and gorgeous landscapes out of duct tape.

Farnes hit upon the unusual medium when his roommate, an industrial design major, was watching YouTube videos of people using painter's tape in detailed artwork. Farnes tried it, decorating his home with such tape creations — then graduated to multi-colored duct tape.

Farnes has been making duct-tape art for five years, on the side of his day job as a counselor at Taylorsville High School.

There are limitations to duct tape. "I can only do certain colors," Farnes said. For a particular shade of sky blue, he found rolls of tape in University of North Carolina Tar Heels colors — but has to use short two-inch segments, to remove the UNC logos.

Farnes places duct tape on a cutting board, cuts thin strips with a razor blade, then places the strips on wood and tears off the excess. He cuts his fingers from time to time, but "it's not that big a deal."

One of Farnes' most ambitious projects is a series of 60 works, representing all the public lands in Utah. His depiction of Bryce Canyon is a particularly beautiful work.

"One thing I love about Utah is the national parks, and all the public lands," Farnes said. "I think it's some pretty fantastic places."

— Sean P. Means —

Utah Arts Festival

The Utah Arts Festival is marking its 40th year Thursday through Sunday at Library and Washington squares in Salt Lake City with music, familiar attractions like the Kids Art Yard, a lineup of food vendors, and a lot from artists that's fresh and new. For highlights, visit http://www.sltrib.com/entertainment .

Tickets

Admission to the Utah Arts Festival is free on Thursday.

Adults • $12 per day, FridayFriday through Sunday

Seniors (65 and older) • $6 per day, FridayFriday through Sunday

Military • $6 per day, FridayFriday through Sunday; ID required

Children (12 and younger) • Free

Three-day pass • $30