Sundance Film Festival to Remain in Park City Utah

Sundance will no longer conflict with MLK holiday through 2026

Park City leaders and the organizers of the Sundance Film Festival finalized an agreement to keep the top domestic marketplace of independent films in Park City Utah through at least 2026, crafting a deal that won support from the tourism industry in addition to City Hall and the festival. The agreement starts with the 2014 festival, scheduled this upcoming January, and includes an out option for the final three years, which could allow the festival to relocate after 2023. Sundance will keep its Utah offices at the Silver Star ski-in, ski-out development through at least 2023. Both sides worked for months on the deal, almost exclusively in private meetings.

Additionally, the new deal removes the conflict of dates of the Sundance Film Festival and the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. One of the key sticking points between City Hall, the tourism industry and Sundance dealt with the years Martin Luther King Jr. Day falls during the festival. Park City and the tourism industry pressed Sundance to slightly move the festival dates in the years when there is a conflict. Sundance agreed to a change in the dates in those years in what was seen as a major concession on the part of the festival. 

The tourism industry argued that if the festival shifted its dates off of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Park City could enjoy a busy three-day holiday weekend in addition to the 11 jammed days of Sundance. There is often a conflict between the holiday weekend and the festival. They overlap five times between 2015 and 2026. There is also an overlap in 2014, but the festival will occur as it was scheduled that year.

City Hall estimated it would have missed out on $14.4 million in revenues between 2015 and 2026 in the years that there would have been an overlap. Then city has offered further financial aid to the film festival as part of the new deal to help assist moving the dates on the years where there was to be an overlap of the film festival and the MLK holiday weekend. The local government and the Chamber/Bureau see the financial inducement as being worthwhile given Sundance's status as the most lucrative event on Park City's busy event calendar. The festival this year pumped $69.5 million of economic impact into the state.

Even more impactful is when the conflict of dates alters the income potential for the many homeowners who rent out their property each year to tourists, a mix of festival goers and skiers. During the years when the popular film festival falls on the same dates as the nation's MLK holiday weekend, Park City vacation rentals essentially would lose a major revenue producing holiday. This was especially impactful to people who own homes or condos in Park City's popular Old Town neighborhood. All homes would be jam packed with reservations for Sundance, and skiers would usually plan to visit another ski town for their MLK weekend. With Sundance now agreeing to adjust its dates, it is big news for anyone with a vacation home rental. Vacation home renters will still have the major benefit of the Sundance Film Festival as well as the extended MLK holiday weekend of skier visits. These have always been two of the busiest and most profitable rental periods, aside from the very busy President's Day week/weekend. For anyone who currently owns a rental property, or who might be planning to, this is big news that should add extra dollars to their checkbook. Additionally, for the town of Park City this will mean an injection of further tourism dollars into our economy. More information can be found on the Park Record website.