The last time John Yelland hosted GrillFest, a backyard music festival and barbeque, was over a decade ago. But the memories, like an earworm of a song, have stuck with him ever since.
“It was very small, very DIY,” Yelland said, “but over the years it became sort of a fixture of the local underground music community.”
In photos from GrillFest 2013 — the most recent event held — the intimate atmosphere of the event, set in the backyard of Yelland’s old bandmate Brendan Greene’s house, is crystal clear.
Large fir trees act as the stage backdrop as sweaty, redfaced musicians bang away on drums, shred guitars, or scream into their microphones. The sound equipment meshed into the surroundings with ease.
The green grass became a natural stage. Sure, the cops came after they violated noise curfews, but it was fun, where a community was made, a place for high school bands to get together and hang out.
Now Yelland is ready to fire up the grills again and graduate from the backyard. After a dozen years on ice, GrillFest is coming back Friday and Saturday, and it’s taking over Midvale’s Main Street.
Yelland, now a part of metal band Judicator, said people would tell him over the years how much they missed the festival. He felt the tug of nostalgia, too.
As he looks to bring the event to burgeoning Main Street, the offerings, according to a poster, are simple: rock music, metal and medieval combat.
A dozen different bands from Utah and out of state, including Judicator, Celestial Wizard and Silver Talon, are on the bill. Bands will perform at The Pearl, while Main Street itself will be cordoned off for food vendors.
In keeping up with the original GrillFest, Yelland said the festival will end on both days at 10 p.m. There will also be a lunch and dinner break, “so you don’t need to choose between seeing this band or going to get something to eat,” he said.
During those breaks, The Order of the Silver Rose, a Utah medieval combat sports team, will provide entertainment.
“I want this to be not just a festival for guests,” Yelland said, “but a family reunion … because that’s what originally was key to GrillFest.”
The charm of Midvale’s historic Main Street fits in perfectly with the vibe that Yelland wants to curate for the festival, he said.
Yelland said remaining determined to bring GrillFest back — bigger and better — has made him feel as excited as he did in the old days.
“It makes me feel like as long as we keep true to our roots and we keep the spirit that made GrillFest so special to begin with, intact, we can continue to inspire people and draw people,” he said.
Rylee McDonald, lead singer and guitarist of the Utah progressive-rock band Advent Horizon, said his band was friends with the members of Disforia (Yelland’s high school band) and that’s how they got involved in GrillFest.
“It’s really cool to see [GrillFest] coming back,” McDonald said, “and not only coming back, but coming back as an actual, professionally produced adult event now.”
Still, McDonald said, Yelland is keeping that “same energy” the event had when they were kids.
“Thinking back to early GrillFest is thinking back to a nostalgic time for me, a time before music was a job, a time when music was just pure joy and fun,” McDonald said.
“For us as younger kids playing that event, it showed us that this thing that is fun, that we’re all doing as a hobby, can actually take us somewhere beyond that.”
Tickets for GrillFest cost $27-$32 for Friday night and $32-$38 for Saturday, with fees included. A two-day pass costs $53-$64 with fees included.