Lodging rates in Park City during the Sundance Film Festival are usually some of the highest of the year.
The restaurants are packed. And taxis, shuttles and rideshare firms enjoy brisk business into the overnight hours.
The festival has long been known to be an especially lucrative stretch on Park City’s calendar.
As Sundance starts a process that could result in the festival leaving Park City, where it has been held since the 1980s, there will likely be renewed focus on the economics of the largest special event in the community.
If Sundance and Park City leaders ultimately reach a new agreement to keep the festival in its longtime location, the economic impact would play a role in the negotiations. But should Sundance move the festival to another place, there could be attention on the numbers as Park City officials and the tourism industry attempt to generate economic activity during the period when Sundance-goers would ordinarily be in Park City.
Sundance commissions an economic report detailing the spending during the festival and each year it shows certain industries generate impressive numbers. The report covering the festival in 2023 — the first in-person event in three years after consecutive pandemic-forced moves online — indicated aggregate spending between people from Utah and travelers from outside the state hit a little less than $125.6 million.
The people from outside the state accounted for the vast majority of the spending. Much of the spending during Sundance is believed to occur in the immediate Park City area and provides a boost across the income spectrum.
The numbers included:
• $33.7 million on lodging
• $34.8 million on recreation and entertainment
• $32.5 million on meals
• $13.9 million on unspecified transportation
• $7.9 million in unspecified sorts of purchases
• $2.8 million in car rentals
The report found people from out of state typically spent $4,517 while attending Sundance, or $783 each day they were at the festival. People from Utah, who generally are not paying for lodging, tallied a total of $437 while at Sundance, or $199 each day.
Attendance in 2023 was estimated at 86,824. Three-quarters of the people at the festival were from Utah. Californians accounted for the largest bloc of non-Utahns, at 35.4%, followed by New York residents.
“Spending during the Sundance Film Festival generates many positive economic benefits. Tourism-related industries are beneficiaries of spending that would not otherwise be part of the state’s economy, and that spending entering the state induces additional spending as companies hire additional labor, increase their capacity, and purchase the goods that are necessary to accommodate the additional visitors,” the report from Y2 Analytics said.
If Sundance moves the festival from Park City, an economic hit would be expected. The festival is held during what is traditionally a post-holiday lull in the ski industry, and the high-spending Sundance crowds buoy the tourism industry in the second half of January as it awaits the core weeks of the season in February and March.
Park City and tourism officials could attempt to lure, or create, another special event that would run during the Sundance period should the festival relocate, but it could take some time for one to establish itself. And even under that scenario, a new event may never become as economically formidable as Sundance, the top marketplace of independent films in the U.S. and among the elite stops on the international circuit.
There could also be a push to attract more skiers to Park City during the period of Sundance if the festival relocates since the lodging industry would not be expected to be nearly as tight as it is during Sundance.