The hottest ticket in America on Tuesday was a free reservation to the Salt Lake Temple Celebration Open House in 2027.
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People swiftly grabbed the first 1 million open house spaces for the first general public tours inside the temple since 1893, according to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The first quarter of a million reservations were made within the first half hour of the release of the initial batch of reservations at 11 a.m.
Temple Square is already a major American attraction, historically drawing 1 million visitors a year without tours of the temple. The first 1 million reservations for tours provided the first barometer of interest in seeing the temple after its seven-year renovation.
Additional batches of reservations for every month of the open house are still to be released, and it’s a good thing for those who didn’t jump on TempleSquare.org or the Temple Square app this week.
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Church and civic leaders expect 4 to 5 million visitors during the 2027 open house, which will run from April 5 to Oct. 1.
Only collective events could rival the temple open house for moving inventory on Tuesday. The NFL will have 1.1 million people in seats at 16 stadiums for its opening weekend next week, but those tickets sold long ago. College football will be similarly popular this weekend. Olivia Rodrigo fans are snapping up special discount $20 tickets for her upcoming tour, but the number is limited.
The Salt Lake Temple is well-known as “a unique and iconic symbol of the church worldwide,” President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, said at an open house kickoff event on Tuesday.
The Salt Lake Temple is:
- The flagship temple of a church that now has 222 of them, with 163 more planned or already under construction.
- A massive pioneer-era architectural and construction marvel that rose out of desert dust across 40 years in the Old West.
- A modern marvel of a renovation that included digging out the foundation under the temple’s 185 million pounds and strengthening against future earthquakes.
It “is a building of faith for so many who practice this faith,” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said at Tuesday’s event. “And it is also a building of interest, a historic building in the history of Western migration, in the history of faith communities in the United States.”
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