Over the last 20 years, Butlerville Days has grown in popularity to become one of the most beloved summer celebrations in Cottonwood Heights. But at what cost? 

Approximately $211,000. 

During a Cottonwood Heights City Council meeting Oct. 7, Culture Manager Ann Eatchel broke this number down by specific expense and revenue budgets. Event activity costs accounted for $129,926 of that total while $81,000 went toward paying event workers from various departments within the city (primarily public works staff and police officers).

Butlerville Days does pull in its own revenue. In 2025, vendor fees from food booths and craft vendors totaled $15,880 while $22,725 was from sponsorships. The carnival brought in $48,499 so the total event revenue was $81,074.

Food vendors bring in roughly $16,000 in fees for Butlerville Days. (Cassie Goff/City Journals)

“I think the premise of this discussion is that we thought it was costing us $25,000, which didn’t include the staff salaries, and it’s really costing us $130,000 so… it’s a different cost structure than we thought,” said Councilmember Suzanne Hyland.

With such a high expense within the city’s budget, the Butlerville Days Committee and council have been discussing significant changes to the city’s yearly event, usually held over the Pioneer Day weekend (July 24). 

One of the biggest expenses within the Butlerville Days budget goes toward paying the event workers. It’s typically an all-hands-on-deck weekend for the Cottonwood Heights Recreation Center team as well as the Cottonwood Heights Public Works team and Police Department. That means, many employees accrue holiday pay plus overtime pay.  

If Butlerville Days was hosted on a non-holiday weekend, the expense for employee paychecks could be significantly reduced within the event budget. Eatchel noted how city employees would be able to have their holiday weekend off. 

“(Former) Mayor Cullimore, (former Mayor) Petersen and (former Councilmember) Scott Bracken always told me we built this on that day because there was nothing else going on,” Eatchel said. 

In considering hosting Butlerville Days one week earlier in 2026, Eatchel did some research. She found the only two conflicting events would be Draper Days and Spanish Fork’s city event. 

Musical performances are starting to increase their pricing which is straining the Butlerville Days budget. (Cassie Goff/City Journals)

“The community view would shift away from thinking of it as a Pioneer Day event,” Eatchel said. 

Eatchel shared how the Rec Center has wanted Butlerville Days to be moved earlier in the month for many years in order to give their grass time to recover from the celebrations before the Little League games start. 

“We haven’t been able to do that before with the musical in place,” Eatchel said, referencing the Arts Council’s annual summer musical. “The Arts Council has agreed to hold off on the musical for the near future and focus on an arts festival in June and see where that might go.” 

In addition to considering moving the dates for Butlerville Days as a cost-savings measure, Eatchel asked the Butlerville Days Committee and city council to examine one of the other highest expenditures in the budget: the parade. 

Cottonwood Heights pays $18,000 every two years for their city float. (The city float goes to about 10 parades throughout the area each year. A minimum of three Cottonwood Heights employees are required to guide the city float so there is also a notable expense for employee pay attached here as well.) 

Cottonwood Heights pays $18,000 every two years for a city-themed float. (Cassie Goff/City Journals)

Eatchel shared that the Butlerville Days Committee “would kill the float fast. They have no love for the float in the parade.” 

Hyland shared how she did receive a lot of feedback this past Butlerville Days regarding the parade starting time of 9 a.m. being too early considering the rest of Butlerville Days wasn’t open yet. (Resulting in most parade-goers returning home after the parade to return to Butlerville Days in the evening, if they did at all.) 

“Starting in the afternoon instead of the morning would be an estimate of $25,000 to $30,000 in salary costs,” Eatchel said. 

The Butlerville Days Committee also discussed eliminating the parade altogether for the year which would be approximate savings of $50,000 to $60,000 (from $6,000 for barricades, $7,000 in candy and the other expenses mentioned above). 

“I’m stuck on the parade and looking at the cost-savings there,” said Councilmember Shawn Newell. “We would see the barometer for what happens if we don’t do the parade.” 

The new drone show at Butlerville Days may have seen its last performance. (Cassie Goff/City Journals)

Besides the parade, the Butlerville Days fireworks show is one of the events’ main iconic features. The show has typically been held on the Saturday night of the event weekend. In addition, a drone show was added during one of the subsequent weekend nights in 2023. Both of these nighttime lighted visual displays have been funded the last two years. 

“It was thrown out there that we only do one,” said Hyland, noting the $15,000 price tag. 

 Eatchel shared how the Butlerville Days Committee would overwhelmingly cut the drone show over the fireworks. 

“When we first approved the drone show, it was $6,000,” said Councilmember Ellen Birrell. 

Councilmember Matt Holton recalled that council approval because Open Sky Productions was offering Cottonwood Heights a significant discount to help them break into the market at the time. Now, their pricing has doubled. 

 “It’s a lot for our little city to put on these two extravaganza events,” Birrell said. “I would favor doing the drone show.” 

Concluding the conversation, the three final recommendations for cost-savings were to: move Butlerville Days 2026 to the weekend earlier (July 16, 17, 18), eliminate a city float from parades and move the Butlerville Days parade to the afternoon. Mayor Mike Weichers also asked Eatchel to discuss eliminating either the fireworks show or the drone show with the Butlerville Days Committee.