Park City’s party celebrating the anniversary of the 2002 Winter Olympics will get underway a week before the actual 10-year date of the opening of the Games.

The Park City Chamber/Bureau, which is one of the organizers of the anniversary celebrations, has outlined a tentative schedule of events starting on Feb. 1. Bob Kollar, who is the Chamber/Bureau’s director of special events, said the anniversary will be marked with athletic competitions, a concert and an Olympic exhibit.

The key date will be Feb.1, a Wednesday and seven days before the actual one-year anniversary of the opening ceremonies in 2002. Some of the events scheduled in Park City on Feb. 1, still considered tentative, include:

  • an opening ceremony for World Cup freestyle competitions being held at Deer Valley Resort. Kollar said the event will be scheduled on Main Street. Deer Valley and the United States Ski and Snowboard Association are organizing an Olympic reunion on Main Street that evening, Kollar said. He said the event planners want to put up a giant video board showing highlights from the Olympics.
  • a short torch relay involving people who carried the Olympic torch in 2002. Kollar said the route has not been finalized. The route will depend on the number of people who will be carrying the torch, he said. It is nearly certain that the relay would include a stretch of Main Street, as it did during the actual torch relay in 2002.
  • an Olympic exhibit at the Kimball Art Center with photographs and memorabilia from the museum at the Utah Olympic Park. Kollar said there will be a place at the Kimball for people to post their own photos and memorabilia from the Games.
  • a gathering of athletes from the Olympics in 2002 as well as competitors with Olympic hopes and youngsters who are involved in development programs in Olympic sports.
  • a concert on lower Main Street featuring Robert Randolph & the Family Band with fireworks afterward

    A report submitted to Mayor Dana Williams and the Park City Council indicated Winter Olympic banners will be put up on Main Street. Some of them date from the Games themselves and others will be made with a logo marking the 10-year anniversary. The report also said a commemorative pin will be given to people at the concert.

    “Our Olympic legacy is alive and well,” Kollar said, adding, “It’s alive and well and thriving.”

    There are two other sporting events scheduled locally during the anniversary period a skeleton Intercontinental Cup at Utah Olympic Park and a snowboarding grand prix at Canyons.

    The Park City area hosted roughly half of the athletic competitions during the Games. Park City Mountain Resort was the site of snowboarding and some of the ski racing. Freestyle skiers and ski racers competed at Deer Valley. The Olympic Park was where ski jumping, bobsled, luge and skeleton contests were held. The cross-country skiing and biathlon events were staged at Soldier Hollow in Wasatch County.

    American athletes fared well at the area venues, including a rare medal sweep in a single event in the Winter Olympics and medal-winning performances by competitors with ties to Park City. The American successes added to the electric atmosphere in Park City.

    Main Street, meanwhile, was a wildly popular place for Olympic festivities, with giant crowds descending on the street. Park City leaders of the era closed Main Street to vehicle traffic, creating a pedestrian-only celebration zone. Giant video screens were installed, there were concerts and Olympic sponsors set up booths. People on Main Street traded Olympic pins, which is a favorite Games pastime, watched the Budweiser Clydesdales and shared in the Olympic spirit.

    The events next month in Park City will coincide with a wider celebration of the 10-year anniversary in the Olympic region. Salt Lake City also plans to mark the anniversary with events like the relighting of the Olympic flame outside Rice-Eccles Stadium and an Olympic Sport Festival at the Gateway in Salt Lake City.

    Fraser Bullock, who was the chief operating officer and chief financial officer of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, said recently he recalls “wonderful times” in Park City during the Olympics. He also said Utah has become a top place for winter sports in the years since the Olympics, which many see as perhaps the most important legacy from the Games.

    Details about the events in the Park City area in early February will be finalized later. The organizers will be required to secure a permit from City Hall for the anniversary events.