Great Salt Lake Vigil at the Capitol 2026

Join the Making Waves Artist Collaborative for the 5th annual Vigil for Great Salt Lake!

Celebrate the Species with us every Friday at 5 pm from January 23rd to March 6th at the Capitol Building.

Walk the Waves with us on Tuesday, January 20th, at 8 am (opening day) and every subsequent Monday at 8 am from January 26th to March 2nd at the Capitol Building.

We can't wait for you to meet our new baby bison, kestrel, and coyote puppets!

Why keep vigil?

Celebration is resistance. Reverence is resistance.

We gather to bear witness to her beauty. We gather to grieve. We gather to create beacons of possibility. We gather to increase our tenderness towards brine shrimp, microbialites, and winged citizens of the air. We gather to carry each other through spells of despair. We gather to revere all that is vital and alive.

Even as the active collapse of our ecosystem challenges our notions of hope, we devote ourselves to a future shaped by human reverence, humility, and reciprocity. Everything we do matters. In the face of this crisis, who will we become?

Values for keeping vigil

1. Non-violence: Peaceful uprising in action and word. Our demonstrations make love visible
2. Devotion: We turn our hearts and faces towards the lake
3. Presence: We offer our calm, steady presence.
4. Reparative Returns: We uplift Indigenous leadership and seek to repair past harms.
5. Sovereignty: We seek legally defensible rights for the lake to live, flourish, and be replenished.
6. Behold the Future: We work to benefit kin who are coming, human and beyond-human.
7. Love Specifies: We cultivate tender regard for all life forms, landforms, and water bodies.
8. We belong to the earth and each other. Belonging is inherent and cannot be earned, sold, or bought.

Vigil Photo Highlights 2024

Featuring Anna Pocaro Photography