4 Days In June
Each June in Salina, more than 60,000 people gather in a park.
They come for music, food, and art.
They leave with something harder to define.
Four Days in June documents what happens when a community creates space to come together, even briefly, and what that might mean beyond those four days.
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Logline
In an era defined by division, a Midwest arts festival creates space for joy — by transforming a normal city park into a space where tens of thousands gather for a personal, tangible encounter with the arts.
Why this story
A Temporary Space
For four days, something exists that does not always exist elsewhere.
a SHARED EXPERIENCE
People from different backgrounds, beliefs, and perspectives gather in the same place, participating in something tangible.
an open question
If this can happen here, even briefly, what does that suggest about what is possible elsewhere?
How the film was made
The project began in 2021 as a short-form documentary effort to mark the festival’s fiftieth anniversary.
Over time, it expanded into a feature-length film.
Festival Founding Mothers
In addition to 4 Days in June, FILI Creative produced a short companion documentary that shares how the Smoky Hill River Festival began. In Festival Founding Mothers, three women who have been a part of the The Smoky Hill River Festival for 50 years, share how the Festival was born out of Salina’s 1976 bicentennial street fair.
