The spotlight of the Sundance Film Festival will continue to shine on Park City through at least 2026.
The agreement between City Hall and festival organizers outlines that Sundance will be held in Park City until 2026. The agreement, though, includes a clause allowing Sundance to opt out of the final three years — the festivals in 2024, 2025 and 2026 — if the not-for-profit organization was unable to renew a lease for space at Silver Star where its Utah headquarters was once located.
Under the terms of the agreement between City Hall and Sundance, festival organizers had a deadline of March 1, which was Tuesday, to provide the municipal government written notice of a cancellation if Sundance had not been able to renew the lease at Silver Star “after good faith and reasonable efforts.”
Sundance moved from the Silver Star grounds in 2019, indicating at the time it outgrew the space. Sundance now leases space in a Kearns Boulevard building with significantly more square footage than the Silver Star location.
City Hall on Thursday provided a prepared statement at the request of The Park Record addressing the opt-out clause and Sundance’s move from Silver Star to the Kearns Boulevard building.
“The Sundance Institute and Park City mutually agree that since the Institute subsequently entered into a new long-term lease for its Utah offices at 1500 Kearns Boulevard, Park City, UT, the Institute’s right to cancel the Master Festival License by written notice due to the Park City by March 1, 2022 is not applicable,” the statement said.
The statement from City Hall also said “both partners are pleased to confirm that our agreement remains in place for the full term through 2026.”
Sundance did not respond individually to a request for comment.
There had not been indications that Sundance was considering exercising the right to opt out of the final three years of the contract, but the deadline was notable nonetheless after the festival was held virtually in January for the second consecutive year out of concern of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Festival organizers canceled the in-person events in Park City in 2022 and 2021 and instead screened films online. It is not clear what sort of online presence Sundance will continue once in-person festivals resume, which is expected as early as the event in 2023.
The statement on Thursday followed approximately six weeks after the sides declined to address the topic of the option during the festival itself in January. City Hall and Sundance at that time indicated they would not comment as the festival was unfolding, saying they did not want to detract from the filmmakers, attendees and the operational matters.
Sundance not exercising the option will likely be welcomed in the business community. The festival is the largest and most lucrative event on Park City’s calendar, drawing more than 100,000 people for the most recent in-person event, which was held in 2020. The festival in 2020 contributed $167.5 million to the gross domestic product of Utah, an economic study found. Business sectors like lodging, restaurant and transportation typically enjoy especially robust numbers during Sundance.