Eagle Mountain’s Pony Express Days boasts updated schedule, family-friendly fun
Eagle Mountain’s Family Fun Night 2016 gets underway.
Family Fun Night, part of Eagle Mountain’s Pony Express Days celebration, gets underway.
Though Eagle Mountain is a newer addition to Utah County, it’s a city founded in tradition and community, a fact made more evident each year with the annual Pony Express Days celebration.
The festival takes its name from Eagle Mountain’s ties to the original Pony Express Trail, and will be held this year from May 29 to June 3. Though some great things about it stay the same each year such as the rodeo, parade, Family Fun Festival and carnival, other aspects are ever changing to keep up with the needs of a burgeoning community.
Among the biggest changes to the schedule this year are the addition of a family-friendly community bike ride Tuesday, May 30 and the switch from a pancake breakfast to a community pancake dinner that same evening.
“We have added a just-for-fun bike ride back into the lineup, combined with a pancake dinner,” said Linda Peterson, Eagle Mountain’s communications and community relations director. “We used to do a pancake breakfast, but since it is a weekday, we wanted to offer something where more people may be able to participate.
“It’s fun to see everyone from little kids on tricycles to senior citizens out biking.”
The bike ride will kick off at Eagle Mountain City Hall at 6 p.m. May 30, and is 2.8 miles one way. The route will extend from City Hall to the turnoff parking lot on Pony Express Parkway just south of Unity Pass, before making its way back to City Hall.
Water and refreshments will be available to riders at that resting point, with the pancake dinner to follow at 6:30 p.m.
Another slight change to the schedule is the addition of an outdoor movie, “Moana,” to the traditional Family Fun Night on May 31. The film, according to Peterson, will be the first in a series of movies the city will be hosting throughout the summer. It also serves as part of the city’s goal to create a better, more affordable experience to festival-goers.
“We are always looking for ways to enhance the event lineup without adding too much cost to the city or the residents,” Peterson said. “Both of these additions are all-ages friendly and free to participants.”
A slightly less noticeable change to the Pony Express Days celebration will come during the June 3 closing fireworks display, which will be lengthened to 15 explosive minutes of fireworks.
All the changes come with one goal in mind: to create a great event that will unify the community.
“Pony Express Days is something that really brings the community together to socialize and have fun,” Peterson said. “We hope the lineup will have something to offer for all residents and visitors from other communities and that the weather will be great so we can emerge from our winter cocoons and celebrate the beginning of the summer season.”
With popular activities such as the Demolition Derby, Pony Express Adventure Ride and the Grand Parade still on the schedule, there will definitely be plenty of reasons to join in the fun.