The Saints & Sinners Ball is the only formal event in town where forces of good and evil come together for the benefit of the Park City Institute.

The annual fundraiser, which will be held this year on Saturday, March 18, at St. Regis Deer Valley, will include dinner, dancing and a live auction, said Park City Institute Executive Director Ari Ioannides.

“We’ll auction off four experiences, which we’re super excited about, but can’t announce, yet,” he said. “Last year we auctioned off a dinner and night at St. Regis for you and eight guests. We also auctioned off a three-night stay at (The Lodge at) Blue Sky, a racing experience where you could either drive a Ferrari or new Corvette on a track.”

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The auction also included a 20-film package for the Sundance Film Festival screenings at the Eccles Center for the Performing Arts, Ioannides said.

“That came with a parking pass,” he said. “So, I would expect the same sort of experiences this year.”

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In addition an online auction will open the night of the event, and anyone, including those who cannot attend the event, will be able to bid on items, Ioannides said.

“Last year we offered more than 100 items,” he said. “It looks like this year we’ll have a lot of gift cards to a lot of local restaurants, tickets for other events, including another Sundance experience that we call an Eccles Entourage Package.”

The online auction will also feature items signed by all the artists who were presented by the Park City Institute during the course of the year, Ioannides said.

“If you’re a big fan of Air Supply, Kevin Cronin from REO Speedwagon or Sammy Hagar, we have signed guitars from all of them,” he said.

The public can register for the online auction at the Saints & Sinners website, e.givesmart.com/events/t3y/signUp.

“We’ll also have a champagne saber toast, and all the drinks are free,” Ioannides said. “Ketel One has stepped up so there is no cash bar. We are still looking for a beer sponsor, though.”

The live event will also provide information about the Park City Institute’s mission, which is to “enrich the community by providing innovative experiences that entertain, educate and illuminate.”

“We take a little time during the night to tell our story of what we did throughout the year, and we mostly use video to do that,” Ioannides said. “We’ll project excerpts of the shows we have done, so there won’t be a lot of boring speaking.”

One of the institute’s biggest initiatives is student outreach, where many of the artists provide master classes, jam sessions, workshops and other informative and entertaining sessions for local children, Ioannides said.

Past outreach programs include the students working with Second City comedy troupe members, and Park City High School Band performing with Danny Seraphine, the original founding drummer for the Grammy Award-winning rock band Chicago.

“St. Regis donates the room and all the food, so all the proceeds go back to our student engagement,” Ioannides said.

As an added bonus for the March 18 event, one of the Park City Institute’s partners, Adam Reader, the Professor of Rock, who conducts intimate interviews with rock stars throughout the season, will be in attendance, according to Ioannides.

“Adam will be interviewing Huey Lewis the night before this year’s event, so you can talk and get to know Adam,” he said. “We have invited Huey to the ball, as well. We can’t guarantee he will be there, but he’s invited.”

Last year, Reader interviewed Kenny Loggins the evening prior to the ball, and Loggins, along with his wife Lisa, made an appearance.

“We have a great band called The Salamanders, and Kenny actually ended up playing a few songs with them,” Ioannides said. “The Salamanders are, in my opinion, one of the best party bands in Utah, and last year’s event was a great experience for everyone in attendance.”

The fundraising goal this year, as posted on the Saints & Sinners website, is $165,000, but Ioannides hopes to raise up to $200,000.

“We came close to that last year, and this is the only fundraiser we host each year,” he said.

The Saints & Sinners Ball returned to an in-person event after taking time off due to the coronavirus pandemic, and when it did, both Park City Institute and St. Regis wanted to make the fundraiser a more classy event.

“Previously the ball was just a costume party, and people came dressed up as everything and anything they wanted,” Ioannides said. “So we decided to turn it into a costume masquerade ball, which means it’s formal now. We do wear masks, but they are nice Venetian masks.”

The idea is to make the fundraiser one of the “marquee events” in town, he said.

“We want to make this an extension of the experiences that Park City Institute does on stage, and we will get there,” Ioannides said. “Every year we’ll have some sort of celebrity there. And we’ll continue to work with St. Regis to elevate the season.”