Sundance Film Festival to relocate to Boulder, Colorado in 2027 after 40 years in Park City

nypost.com:

Sundance Film Festival announced Thursday that its new home will be Boulder, Colorado, keeping Sundance in the mountains but moving it out of Park City, the Utah ski town that had for decades provided the premier independent film gathering its picturesque snowy backdrop.Organizers said that after 40 years in the mountains, the festival had outgrown Park City, and lacked the necessary theaters or affordable housing to continue hosting what has become one of North America’s most sprawling movie events.

Sundance had narrowed down the options to Salt Lake City (with a smaller presence in Park City), Cincinnati and Boulder.Boulder emerged as their choice due to its close proximity to nature, its small-town charm and an engaged community that, organizers said, provides Sundance the ideal setting for its future.“Boulder is a tech town, it’s a college town, it’s an arts town, and it’s a mountain town,” Amanda Kelso, acting chief executive of the Sundance Institute, said in an interview Thursday from Boulder. “At 100,000 people, a larger town than Park City, it gives us the space to expand.”Kelso, Sundance Institute board chair Ebs Burnough and Eugene Hernandez, director of the festival and head of programming, spoke shortly before announcing the festival’s move in Boulder.

Local officials, who helped lure Sundance with $34 million in tax credits over 10 years, applauded the decision.“Here in our state we celebrate the arts and film industry as a key economic driver, job creator and important contributor to our thriving culture,” Colorado Gov.

Jared Polis (Dem.) said in a statement.Reacting to the decision, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (Rep.) said Thursday that Sundance will come to regret leaving Utah.“As I’ve said from the beginning,.