Jack Thomas was key to negotiations that led to the Park City municipal government’s acquisition of land in Bonanza Park, where officials are now pursuing an ambitious development.

Thomas was the mayor of Park City in mid-2017 when the $19.5 million deal was announced for the approximately 5 acres off the southwest intersection of Bonanza Drive and Kearns Boulevard. The deal involved a private-sector partnership that struggled to win support for a development at the location. Thomas and other Park City leaders at the time instead envisioned creating an arts and culture district on the land with the Utah offices of the Sundance Institute and the Kimball Art Center as the anchors.

The concept, though, faltered in the intervening years, with the Sundance Film Festival leaving the state and the Kimball Art Center opting for a location in the Snyderville Basin. There was only limited progress toward developing an arts and culture district before the two organizations decided to depart.

The municipal government and a partner are instead pursuing a radically different development concept. It involves a large amount of income-restricted housing, market-rate units and commercial square footage. A childcare location and 2 acres of open space are also included.

Thomas appeared at the Marsac Building on Wednesday during a Park City Planning Commission meeting about the concept, offering pointed testimony about the proposal during a hearing that tilted against the project.

It has been rare for Thomas to testify about a Park City issue since he left office in early 2018 after not seeking reelection to a second term. Thomas, an architect who splits his time between Park City and Bentonville, Arkansas, served on the Planning Commission prior to his mayoral victory. Parkites saw him as a reasoned leader amid the strengthening emergence from the Great Recession and as the community was jarred by Vail Resorts’ acquisition of Park City Mountain and subsequent linking of the resort with what was then the standalone Canyons Resort.

Thomas’ testimony was notable for the influential role he played in the talks about the acquisition and the early discussions regarding an arts district. He invoked the late Robert Redford, the Sundance founder, in his comments to the Planning Commission.

“I thought I’d mention a little bit about how the arts and culture came about, because I was with another person when we came up with the concept, and that was Bob Redford,” Thomas said. “He had a passion for small towns. He had a passion for Park City. He thought it could be more than just another resort town, and I happened to agree with him.”

During his administration, he said Park City “had this amazing opportunity to see this land that we’re talking about today as the arts and culture district become available” and recalled municipal staffers devising a funding strategy. Thomas spoke about Parkites’ opinions about the land at the time, saying the current concept does not resemble what was discussed then.

“When we moved to the community and got our input to the community and from the community, we emphasized the fact that it was an arts and culture district. I don’t see that in the plan today. I think you suffer to find it in this plan,” he said.

Thomas added: “It’s a pathetic plan, and I think you should seriously consider walking away from it or re-evaluating.”

He said an earlier vision for the land respected the high-profile location, but the current one fails in that respect.

“What we see, from a perspective, is walls of buildings on Bonanza and Kearns. And I think it’s an overwhelming scale and has none of the character, none of the amenities, none of the purpose that I think we started with,” he said.

Thomas urged a reconsideration of the concept.

“It’s an opportunity to do something on the most important land we have in this community. And so let’s get it right even if it takes stepping back, evaluating the massing and scale, and taking another look at those original plans,” he said.

The agreement to acquire the land, which ended the previous owner’s disputed development efforts, was one of the top accomplishments of the Thomas administration. An arts and culture district like the one outlined at the time was viewed as advancing Park City’s efforts to diversify the economy and spotlighting the importance of the cultural sector to the community. It was also seen as ensuring Sundance’s long-term future in Park City as well as providing a permanent spot for the Kimball Art Center after the organization weathered a bruising development battle in Old Town.

In announcing the agreement in 2017, Thomas said a district “is anchored in who we are as a community.” He described the agreement as a “miraculous moment” and a “perfect opportunity” during the announcement.

The Planning Commission on Wednesday received approximately one hour of testimony, mostly in opposition to the concept. The panel is scheduled to return to the discussions at an Aug. 26 meeting.

The development proposal involves:

• 88 units of income-restricted rentals.
• 18 rentals without income restrictions.
• More than 30,000 square feet for a variety of tenants, such as retailers, restaurants, cafes and art spaces for not-for-profit organizations.
• A childcare location.
• 2 acres of open space.

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Ever since the Sundance Institute announced the film festival would move to Boulder, Colorado, starting in 2027, Park City Special Event Manager Chris Finney has been bombarded with phone calls from event organizers.

“Everyone’s calling me saying, ‘I’m here to save Park City (with a new January event),’” Finney said during a panel about local arts and culture at the Wasatch Back Economic Summit on Monday. “They’re talking about tens of thousands of people they want to bring in on day one.”

While Finney said the economic boon the festival brought to the Wasatch Back will be missed — particularly by local businesses like Park City Lock & Key, which always raked in cash from festivalgoers locking themselves out of their Airbnbs — it also put a strain on year-round residents and city resources.

“If you think about everything that happens during Sundance, there’s someone standing out in the cold, directing traffic or working a crosswalk or loading people into cars or standing in an intersection,” Finney said.

Jocelyn Scudder, executive director of the Arts Council of Park City & Summit County, said residents of the Wasatch Back should focus on establishing the next Sundance Institute instead of the next Sundance Film Festival. In other words, she sees greater potential in the creation of spaces for artists than events to draw in tourists.

“We are very heavily reliant on these big events: Sundance, Kimball Arts Festival, Savor the Summit,” she said. “If we’re able to have these really amazing spaces for arts and culture and activity and experiences to happen, then we will see 12-month, year-round activity act more as kindling for the local community, rather than these high-impact events that are great for our economy, but they’re hard on our community.”

One of those spaces could be the Heber Valley Arts Center planned for east of the Utah Valley University Wasatch campus, encompassing an outdoor amphitheater, indoor theater and rehearsal, community and gallery spaces. The Wasatch County Arts Council hopes to build the arts center by the 2034 Winter Olympics. 

Phil Jordan, co-chair of the Heber City Arts Advisory Committee and an executive at entertainment company Next Level Ops, said the Wasatch Back’s greatest need is rehearsal space for artists.

“It is, generally, across the United States, the debit that is always identified first and generally supported last because it doesn’t generate a return on investment,” he said. 

He added that the Heber Valley Arts Center will bring a “rising tide” for Wasatch Back residents, who will be able to express themselves authentically in the new space. That, he said, will attract new residents to both counties.

Scudder said Summit County residents are excited about the Heber Valley Arts Center.

“I’ve heard from a lot of artists who’ve caught wind of that and (are) like, ‘Well, maybe I’ll go down there and exhibit,’ or ‘Maybe I’ll go down there and perform,’” she said. 

While the Heber Valley Arts Center is a long way from breaking ground, Heber City’s arts and culture scene is growing rapidly, explained Rachel Kahler, executive director of nonprofit Community Alliance for Main Street.

Kahler has a contract with Heber City to organize at least 50 local events in Main Street Park annually. The city’s goal is to build up to 250 events annually. 

Kahler has taken the advice of Park Silly Sunday Market Executive Director Kate McChesney: “Be mindful of what you’re doing and don’t grow too fast.”

Park City Councilor Tana Toly provided Savor the Summit as an example of an event that has grown into a tourist event rather than one for locals.

“We can’t afford to go do that, and so, we’re looking at other events during the summer,” she said.

Kahler said organizers need to recognize the pressures events can put on local communities. She provided Ice Castles — which she was previously marketing manager of — as an example. 

Ice Castles started in Midway’s town square in 2011. 

“If you remember back then, they basically took over downtown,” she said. “Every neighborhood was angry because, instead of Swiss Days, which takes over for two days, they had seven weeks of lines and people and parking.”

Ice Castles then moved to the Homestead Resort and later Soldier Hollow Nordic Center in response to resident feedback. The attraction became beloved and brought an influx of economic activity for small business owners, like David Medina, owner of Lola’s Street Kitchen.

“David told me those first couple years, he had such a small restaurant. But because of the Ice Castles, it kept him in business to (the point) where he now is a destination restaurant,” Kahler said. “These are factors that you can’t often gauge with data, but you can with relationships.”

Kahler’s example represents how arts and cultural events can provide economic spillover for local businesses. But the benefits of the arts aren’t purely economic, Scudder said. 

“Creating art and experiencing art is what makes us distinctly human, and it allows us to connect,” she said. “It not only supports our community, but it supports our well being as people. I hope that people think of arts as a social investment.”

Ciara Steele from the Utah Arts Collective said the organization’s Nutcracker Tea Party demonstrates that. Every year, the Utah Arts Collective collaborates with local businesses — for example, Midway’s Dandelion Gelato — and donates all proceeds to the Wasatch County Children’s Justice Center, which provides services to children undergoing the child abuse investigative process.

“We’re all working together, and there’s a local benefit,” Steele said. “We educate our dancers about what the (Children’s Justice Center) provides, so they understand what they’re serving with their talent. The parents get behind that, and the community does, (too).”

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The Park City Police Department received input last week from someone wanting to ensure the artworks along Main Street created by Banksy years ago are protected.

The person contacted the agency around 8 a.m. on March 20, indicating they heard of the famed graffiti artist “working internationally” and mentioning the works in Park City, according to public police logs. The person apparently said emergency “steps need to (be) taken.”

The Police Department said the person saw media coverage “that talked about the Banksy art in Park City and wanted to make sure the city is preserving the art.” The police told the person, “the city is aware of the art and no further action was taken.” The Police Department was unsure where the person is from.

Banksy arrived in Park City just before the start of the 2010 edition of the Sundance Film Festival. He was featured in a festival entry and created a series of works in the community.

Banksy by then already had stature as an internationally prominent artist, and there was a movement soon after to protect some of the works in Park City.

The two best known — a kneeling videographer on the Java Cow building and an angel boy on a garage steps from Main Street — were put behind protective glass and frames. A vandal later attacked the two pieces, shattering the glass protecting the angel boy image and then spray-painting over the Banksy piece. The glass protecting the videographer’s image did not shatter and the vandal was not able to gain access to the artwork itself. A man from California eventually was linked to the vandalism cases.

The Banksy works along Main Street have been an attraction since they were created. People are regularly seen taking photographs of the pieces, particularly the videographer.

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The departure of the Sundance Film Festival weighed heavily Friday over a panel of five Park City arts leaders at the annual Park City Leadership Symposium. 

Ben Anderson, founder of Park City Song Summit, called the festival the “fair-haired child” of Park City’s arts scene that “gave us the one-fingered salute” and disowned the family. He and the other panelists contemplated how Sundance’s siblings in the Park City arts scene might fill the void left by the festival.

For Katy Wang, executive director of Park City Film, the biggest void left by the Sundance Film Festival that she hopes to fill is inspiring Park City’s youth. 

“My kids, growing up here, are saying all of these stories that they got exposed to are spreading their imaginations, sparking that creativity and (making them) go, ‘I could be that,’” she said.

Jamie Wilcox, executive director of Egyptian YouTheatre, agreed.

“We cannot talk about centering the arts if we’re not talking about giving these opportunities to young people,” she said.

She added that not all children will grow up to be artists — some may even work jobs that don’t exist yet, particularly due to advances in AI — but that the skills children gain by being grounded in the arts are essential. 

“Our kids are coming back and telling us, ‘It helps me with interviews. It helps me speak up for myself and others. It helps me collaborate,’” she said. “If these aren’t skills we’re teaching them and in a fun way, we’re giving them a disadvantage in their future.”

Meanwhile, Brian Richards, executive director of Mountain Town Music, thought the biggest void the festival left was the presentation of art that takes creative risks or discusses difficult subject matters, challenging perspectives and sparking conversations.

“I’m not sure that we, as an arts and cultural collective, are doing enough right now to continue to shape those future discussions,” he said.

He then brought up musical plants.

“I had a thing come across my desk. This artist was going to bring in a bunch of plants, and they were going to connect microphones to the plants, and they were going to create music,” he recalled.

But he couldn’t think of a suitable venue for the artist. 

That led straight into a discussion of arts spaces, or the lack thereof, in Park City. 

Jocelyn Scudder, executive director of the Arts Council of Park City and Summit County and moderator of the panel, pointed out that the need for such spaces was outlined in the Arts & Culture Master Plan created by the Arts Council, which was approved by the Park City and Summit County councils earlier this year.

Anderson said he hopes that manifests in the form of a facility similar to the Center for the Arts in Crested Butte, Colorado. The Center for the Arts was established in 1985 to revive the ski town, and in 2019, a new, 28,000-square-foot building was opened, costing about $20 million.

“They do food and wine festival outdoors. They do a summer concert music series outdoors. Indoors, they do art, music, drama. They have culture. There’s 1,600 people in Crested Butte. What are we doing?” Anderson asked. “We are so far behind. We are so lacking.”

Richards agreed. He asked whether anyone regularly saw live music on Main Street. A few raised their hands. 

He then asked where people see live music most. People shouted out venues like The Marquis and The Spur. Richards pointed out that those were venues for patrons 21 and older and emphasized the need for spaces for youth musicians. 

He added that Park City live music is “beholden” to the whims of ski resorts during the winter, which tend to host only DJs.

Anderson described bringing live music to Park City as “an uphill, Sisyphean battle because we don’t have the space.”

Wrapping up the panel, Scudder asked each panelist how they wanted to look back on the arts scene 10 years from now.

“In this town, we always joke that you could throw a stick and hit an Olympian. I would love to be able to throw a stick and hit an artist,” Wang said. 

All agreed that they wanted further investment in the arts scene, diversifying Park City’s portfolio so the tourism industry can survive even during warm winters.

But for that investment to happen, words have to turn into actions.

“I have been in so many of these meetings, going back to sitting up at the loft of the costume area at the Egyptian Theatre with Randy Barton, trying to outline how we could move forward as an arts and cultural society. All we’ve done for 15 years is talk about it. We need each and every one of you in this room to pursue action now,” Richards said. 

“I don’t know how much we have talked about AI today, but we are at a critical junction, and we are going to experience a lot of pain. And there is no way around that,” he continued. “And we are going to need one another. We’re going to need artists. We’re going to need community. … When we are sitting here in 2036, we’re going to say, ‘We did it. We provided joy. We provided community gatherings. We contributed to the wellness of our community.’”

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Brooklyn-based filmmaker Philip Thompson first attended the Sundance Film Festival in 2025, but even that couldn’t have prepared him for the frenzy of the 2026 festival.

Some made friends with strangers in the standby line for in-demand films. Others wandered the streets simply to experience the energy. There was networking and industry veterans and greenhorns letting loose at parties. And every Uber driver Thompson talked to was hell-bent on making bank from the tourists one last time before the festival moved to Boulder in 2027.

“Boulder is way more spread out, so that’s going to have a different feeling to it. … Park City is so crammed in and compact and condensed, it’s like everyone’s bumping into each other, all the cars are about to hit each other, and you really feel that energy,” Thompson said. “Sometimes it is a lot. I was there for a week, and by the end of it, I was ready to go home. But it is this magical feeling that you really can’t get anywhere else.”

There was a much different feeling at the Sundance Institute’s annual, three-day Screenwriters Lab. 

Thompson, who is currently writing the script for his first feature film, had been invited to the Sundance Mountain Resort, along with 10 other fellows, to receive feedback from accomplished screenwriters like Michael Arndt, Lulu Wang and Meg LeFauve in the days leading up to the festival in January.

The lab’s vibe was exemplified by a screening of the 2016 Academy Award Best Picture winner, “Moonlight,” with co-writers Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney, two of the creative advisers who worked with the fellows on their scripts. Both hadn’t seen “Midnight” in years, Thompson said.

“I forgot that ‘Moonlight’ was about (McCraney’s) life. So, being able to talk to him and know him as a human being, and then watching the movie after was so emotional and devastating but beautiful. Both of them broke down in tears after the screening,” he recalled. 

Ilyse McKimmie, deputy director of the Sundance Institute’s Feature Film Program, said the feeling of the lab was especially reverent this year as the fellows and lab organizers honored Sundance Institute founder Robert Redford, who died in September, by discussing what the actor and director meant to them.

McKimmie, who has worked for the Sundance Institute since 1999, remembers Redford as committed to his craft, forthright and funny. 

“When he was there, he was just another person at the lab,” she said. “He always wanted to make it very much about the work and was very eager to get to know each fellow.”

While the death of Redford and the moving of the film festival to Boulder have left the Sundance Institute in a season of change, the Screenwriters Lab will continue to be held at Sundance Mountain Resort, the “ancestral home” of the Institute and Film Festival, as McKimmie called it.

The Directors Lab will also return to Sundance Mountain Resort in 2027 after it moved to the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, in 2024 amid construction at the resort.

Redford founded the resort in 1969 and the Sundance Institute in 1981. Though he sold the resort in 2020, the location is rich with the Sundance Institute’s history and ties into Redford’s lifelong passions for nature and Native American rights.

“I have many wonderful memories of doing everything from snowshoeing in the winter to riding the ski lift in the summer and going hiking,” McKimmie said. “And traditionally, when our Directors Lab has been there in the past, we always kick things off by going up to Elk Meadows, which is a meadow a little bit up the road from the base of the mountain, and receive a blessing from a Ute tribal leader.”

McKimmie is hopeful that by maintaining a connection with Sundance Mountain Resort and continuing its outreach to Utah organizations, like the film programs of the University of Utah and Utah Valley University, that the Sundance Institute can “get away with having the best of both worlds,” she said, beginning “a version of our story in Boulder” while repaying Utah communities and ensuring they stay a key part of that story.

As for the Screenwriters Lab fellows, they’ll continue to walk away from the lab with their confidence shaken “in a good way,” as Thompson put it.

His script, “Dance Monkey Dance,” is a found-footage documentary about a fictional comedian, equal parts “Blair Witch Project” and a satire of fame and the commodification of Black artists by white audiences. He’s been working on it for well over a year.

He had to cut down his 180-page epic to 130 pages to even apply to the Screenwriters Lab. Now, he has a thousand new ideas — but the script is too long again.

Fellow Renee Zhan is also working through revisions. The London-based filmmaker has been working on her script, “BAOBAO,” for two years. 

“BAOBAO” follows an only daughter returning home to China to find that her parents have had another baby. It’s inspired by a true story from a friend, studying in London, who returned to China in her mid-20s to find her parents had brought a baby brother into the world without letting her know.

“They’d done this at the time because the one-child policy was revoked, so they could finally have, basically, the son that they’ve always wanted, because it’s still such an important thing for the patriarchal system in China to have that boy,” Zhan explained. “I’m a very much spoiled only daughter, and the thought of, suddenly, this new intruder of a baby arriving … I just could imagine how angry I’d be.”

With such a wacky premise that becomes even wackier as supernatural horror and baby puppetry enter the mix, Zhan’s greatest challenge has been ensuring that the characters remain relatable rather than cartoonish even as the tone becomes increasingly surreal. 

After receiving feedback from five industry veterans, Zhan is back to square one in developing her main character.

“To be honest, before I got to the labs, I was feeling pretty good about the script,” she said. “Now, I’m rethinking everything. I’m confused, but in a good way. I think the lab really challenged me to look deeper and to think about it in different directions, which I think, ultimately, is going to make it a much better script.”

And that, McKimmie said, is the point of the Screenwriters Lab.

“They’re not at the lab trying to find all the answers,” she said. “We always say, ‘Actually, if you leave asking the right questions, that’s a great result.’”

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The Park City Police Department expects there will be a reduction in annual contract services as a result of the Sundance Film Festival’s move to Colorado, but the number of full-time officers is not anticipated to be impacted.

Police Chief Wade Carpenter is unsure of the dollar figure of any reduction but estimated the number could be in the low six figures. A reduction would be reflected in the agency’s budget request for the municipal government’s 2027 fiscal year, which runs from mid-2026 until mid-2027.

The festival was typically one of the busiest stretches of the year for the Police Department, as large crowds of film lovers, celebrity gawkers and others arriving each January. Traffic issues, parking problems and noise complaints were commonplace.

Carpenter said up to 120 officers worked during Sundance, far more than is typical at other times of the year. The Police Department regularly tapped outside agencies for contract work during the festival to reinforce the agency’s own officer corps.

The police chief said there are no plans to reduce the full-time force based on the festival’s departure.

Sundance held the final festival in Park City in January before the relocation to Boulder, Colorado, starting in 2027.

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Main Street was one of the gold-medal attractions during the 2002 Winter Olympics. 

The shopping, dining and entertainment strip became a pedestrian celebration zone, drawing giant crowds of winter-sports fans from across the globe. They displayed pride in their homelands, they partook in the popular hobby of Olympic pin trading and they watched as the Budweiser Clydesdales traversed Main Street. They partied into the early morning hours and woke up ready for another day of Games competitions, followed by more revelry on Main Street.

There has not been anything like it since.

The annual Park City Kimball Arts Festival on the Main Street blacktop lasts just one weekend, is held in the summer and provides limited room for free-flowing crowds, with the artist booths occupying so much space. The Park Silly Sunday Market occurs one day a week during the summer and fall, and it is based on lower Main Street, with limited activities on the upper part of the street. The pandemic-era pedestrian days offered space on Main Street for social distancing but were not designed to attract crowds and keep them occupied with activities. Other celebrations involving Main Street, like the annual Independence Day and Miners Day parades, are one-day affairs.

But as Park City enters the early stages of planning for the 2034 Winter Olympics, there are lessons from the recently wrapped Sundance Film Festival about the potential role Main Street could play when the state hosts the Games for a second time.

The Main Street plans devised for Sundance, in certain ways, closely resembled those crafted for the Winter Olympics in 2002. There is no such thing as an absolute parallel between special events like the Winter Olympics and the film festival, but the similarities were striking this year. Main Street during Sundance in 2026 harkened back to the Games of 2002 in ways that had not been experienced in the intervening 24 years. There was not an effort to replicate the 17 days of the Winter Olympics on Main Street for Sundance, even as elements of the plan for January nearly did so. 

The festival this year was the final edition of Sundance held in Park City before the event moves to Boulder, Colorado, in 2027, but the blueprints for Main Street last month could ultimately help guide some of the Winter Olympic planning in the coming years.

It was the second consecutive festival that Park City removed traffic from Main Street during the prime days and hours of Sundance. The municipal government quickly devised a pedestrian zone for the 2025 film festival as a security measure in the period immediately following a New Year’s truck attack in New Orleans. There was no time last year to arrange programming for the pedestrian zone. The space on the street drew the festival crowds nonetheless, as they moved off the notoriously cramped sidewalks of Sundance.

In anticipation of this year’s festival, however, Park City officials and Sundance had months to consider the plans for a pedestrianized Main Street. The result was a scene in the Main Street core during the opening days of Sundance designed to bring crowds of film lovers to the street, offer the festival-goers various off-screen activities, highlight Sundance sponsors and provide space to celebrate.

It appeared to work as designed.

Independent film fans moved up and down Main Street and onto Swede Alley as they explored the offerings. Some stopped by an installation marking the 20th anniversary of the Sundance film “Little Miss Sunshine,” while others watched a video board installed at Miners Park showing images of past festivals interspersed with a commemoration of late Sundance founder Robert Redford. Adobe opened a temporary location in rented space along Main Street, transforming the exterior of the building with a large logo on the front. It was one in a series of corporate setups that arrived for Sundance. The pedestrian zone provided space for a concert on upper Main Street, replete with a temporary stage. People packed onto the street. The afternoon of the first Saturday of Sundance had shoulder-to-shoulder crowds on some stretches of Main Street.

The Main Street pedestrian zone formulated for the Winter Olympics in 2002 had similar aspirations but was designed at a larger, more ambitious scale and with a longer duration. Park City officials and the organizers of the Games, realizing Main Street would be a natural gathering spot, wanted to highlight the street as they crafted a vision for the community’s part in the Winter Olympics.

The street was ready-made for a Games-long celebration. It became one of the locales that allowed Park City to successfully serve as the quaint, scenic mountain complement to Salt Lake City. Park City Mountain and Deer Valley Resort — two competition venues in 2002 — were within walking distance of Main Street, and the crowds at the sporting events were anticipated to gather there before and after the skiing and snowboarding contests. The crowds at events at the Utah Olympic Park invariably wound up on Main Street, as well.

The decision to close Main Street to traffic during the Games was made more than a year before the opening ceremony. It was one of the crucial pre-Games moves made by the City Hall leaders of the era, and it teamed the municipal government with the organizing committee as the pedestrianized celebration zone was planned.

The Main Street core was transformed for the Games with installations by official Olympic sponsors, entertainment and other activities. The Clydesdale horses were stabled on Swede Alley. Coca-Cola constructed a temporary building for pin trading on a small portion of 5th Street outside the Main Street post office. General Motors operated a Chevy Hot Zone where the Kimball Art Center was located at the time. There were numerous other temporary setups for the Games on or close to Main Street. Fireworks capped the evenings. More than 500,000 people were counted on Main Street during the Games.

Security was heavy during the Winter Olympics and Sundance, and the protection involved a cadre of public-safety agencies for each event. The municipal government in 2002 and this year needed to devise traffic, transportation and parking plans that accounted for the Main Street traffic closure and aimed to protect Old Town from being overwhelmed by drivers headed to the festivities.

The city government in 2002 worked with the Games organizing committee to accommodate the temporary presence of the official sponsors alongside the permanent businesses in the Main Street core, essentially the same as what occurred between the municipal government and film festival organizers for Sundance. The entirety of the Main Street plans for the Winter Olympics and Sundance required approval processes through various departments.

Park City’s progress on the Winter Olympic work has been fitful in the 18 months since the International Olympic Committee awarded the Games of 2034. The Winter Olympic possibilities for Main Street will likely be addressed throughout the course of the talks between City Hall, the community and the organizing committee. A timeline for the municipal efforts is not clear, but the eight-year countdown to the opening ceremony begins on Tuesday.

When the Games in Utah begin on Feb. 10, 2034, Sundance will have just ended its eighth annual 11-day run in Colorado. And Main Street in Park City could be following a script that was at least influenced in some ways by a film festival that was held eight years earlier.

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The Park City Police Department received a series of parking-related calls from various locations during the Sundance Film Festival.

The issues did not seem to be widespread, following an opening weekend of Sundance that also appeared to be subdued in relation to parking problems.

Parking had long been one of the chief complaints to law enforcement during Sundance. 

Some of the cases included:

• On Saturday, Jan. 31, at 11:27 p.m., the police were told of a vehicle that was left on Park Avenue, outside a residential building and in a place where a residential permit is required. The vehicle had Oklahoma license plates, the police were told.
• On Jan. 31 at 5:23 p.m., someone contacted the police on Snow Creek Drive indicating a car had been towed. The person told the police the towing company was charging too much, according to department logs. The police classified the case as a citizen assist rather than a suspected criminal matter.
• On Jan. 31 at 10:23 a.m., a parking issue was reported in the area of the 1300 and 1400 blocks of Woodside Avenue. The police were told there were “a bunch of cars illegally parked.” The person who contacted the police indicated the vehicles “need to be ticketed,” according to public police logs.
• On Friday, Jan. 30, at 6:21 p.m., a camper, described as “suspicious looking,” was reported to be parked on Centennial Circle. There was “graffiti all over it,” the police were told.
• On Monday, Jan. 26, at 9:30 p.m., a truck was reported to be in a parking lot of a hotel on Park Avenue. The vehicle had been at the location for several hours, and a driver was not present, the police were told.

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Park City High School students on Friday morning rallied against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency at the start of the closing weekend of the Sundance Film Festival.

Although the demonstration did not seem to be timed specifically to occur during Sundance, the walkout by the students nonetheless happened with the spotlight of the festival remaining on Park City.

It appears the protest on Friday will be the last one of any sort in Park City during Sundance before the festival moves to Boulder, Colorado, starting with the 2027 edition. City Hall on Friday morning indicated it was not aware of additional demonstrations planned before Sundance closes on Sunday. 

Sundance for decades has been seen as an opportune time for organizers, particularly those from the political left, to plan demonstrations in Park City. The international entertainment media provides a platform and celebrities occasionally join the protests, attracting even more publicity.

Demonstrators this year were especially unhappy with the Trump administration’s immigration policies and marched on Main Street on Monday. There was another gathering the day before.

The demonstrations over the years during Sundance involved a variety of issues, including the anti-war movement during the conflict in Iraq, Occupy Wall Street and animal rights.

Some of the demonstrations during Sundance in the 2000s have included:

• The Women’s March on Main, which was held in 2017. The demonstration drew up to 9,000 people to Main Street and Swede Alley. It was not designed as a Trump protest, but many of the marchers condemned the president on the day after he was inaugurated.
• The Occupy Wall Street movement, which was active during the festival in 2012. A small group of demonstrators rallied at the Wells Fargo bank branch on Kearns Boulevard, with some of them storming into the lobby, chanting and dancing before police officers ordered them out almost immediately.
• The conservative Westboro Baptist Church, which visited Park City for the festival in 2011. The church stationed a small number of people outside a Sundance screening of a film that depicted a fictional congregation that resembled the Kansas church. Upward of 200 students from Park City High School staged a demonstration to counter the Westboro Baptist Church. The students overwhelmed the contingent from the church.
• The gay rights movement, which was present during Sundance in 2010. Approximately 30 demonstrators gathered outside a Sundance screening, expressing displeasure with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ stance on gay marriage.

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It was five or six years ago when Wasatch County Arts Council President Pat Sweeney ran into the late Robert Redford at the Wasatch County Library. 

Redford looked like he was researching something with a friend, but Sweeney didn’t eavesdrop. She did, however, approach the Oscar-winning actor and director to tell him about the Heber Valley Arts Center planned for 4 acres east of the Utah Valley University Wasatch campus. 

The center is planned to encompass an outdoor amphitheater, indoor theater and rehearsal, community and gallery spaces. The project, which Sweeney estimates will cost $100 million, began in December 2023 with a 50-year lease at a rate of $1 per year between the Arts Council and Heber City. The nonprofit hopes to build the center by the 2034 Winter Olympics.

Redford loved the idea.

“He said, ‘This is exactly what the area needs. This is how we’re going to grow and improve the quality of life in this back area,’” Sweeney recalled. “The man had a vision, and the man’s vision didn’t just encompass film.”

Sweeney’s initial hope for the Heber Valley Arts Center’s indoor theater was to use it as an official screening venue for the Sundance Film Festival, much like The Ray and Yarrow Theatres in Park City.

But when the 42-year-old institution announced in March that it would be packing its bags and moving to Boulder, Colorado, in 2027, the dream of Wasatch County becoming more involved in the festival was crushed.

“We’re still going to have (the theater) because it wasn’t dependent on Sundance, but it’s unfortunate because we knew that it would fill the house for several days,” Sweeney said. 

The loss of a potential screening venue is perhaps the biggest impact the Wasatch County arts scene will feel as a result of the film festival’s departure. 

Sweeney said most of Wasatch County’s arts organizations are in hibernation in January and February, when Sundance takes place, so there won’t be a loss of an audience of wandering festivalgoers. 

While there aren’t any film organizations or nonprofits in Wasatch County, she added she’s hopeful Wasatch and Summit counties can come together to create a new film festival to fill the void left by Sundance. 

She imagines a boutique event taking place over the summer instead of the winter, perhaps in conjunction with the Park City Kimball Arts Festival. If such a film festival were to arise, she would love to offer the Heber Valley Arts Center as a venue to bring the two counties together. 

“It might not draw people from across the country right away, but we could have something of our own and make it our own,” she said.

Sweeney’s desire to bring a local focus back to film festivals in the Wasatch Back was echoed by Alicia Stockman, a Heber City folk Americana singer-songwriter and Wasatch County Arts Council administrative assistant.

Stockman has lived in Wasatch and Summit counties her entire life. Her fond memories of Sundance include volunteering at the Egyptian Theatre to get free tickets in her 20s, experiencing virtual reality for the first time at one of the festival’s art installations and watching KT Tunstall perform at the ASCAP Music Café. 

But she thinks the festival’s local focus has diminished over time.

“It just got really big and unwieldy and became all about brands and sponsorships, and that took away from that art experience, I think,” Stockman said. “Now, it kind of feels like it’s so exclusive, and it’s hard to get into. It’s not as compelling for locals to really be able to participate in it.”

That point was hammered home when Stockman performed at the Chase Sapphire lounge during the 2024 festival.

“For me to get my mom to come and see me play at Sundance, I had to pull strings,” she said. “I knew the caterer, and that’s how we got people in.”

Thankfully, the security recognized Stockman’s mother the next year her daughter performed at the same venue and let her right in.

While Stockman acknowledged the departure of Sundance will have its impacts on the Heber Valley arts scene with the Wasatch Back no longer attracting the same creative minds it used to, she’s also hopeful the valley can forge its own future in the arts. 

“With our population growing as much as it has, I think we’re at this precipice, this opportunity, to really define who we are culturally and artistically,” she said. “We have a knack for making things accessible to families. … That’s something that sets us apart.”

As for Sweeney, she looks forward to the ongoing development of the Heber Valley Arts Center — the panel of community members and elected officials behind the project should land on a concept design for the outdoor amphitheater in the spring — and the role it will play in capturing audiences in Summit, Utah and Salt Lake counties.

But her outlook about the departure of Sundance was a bit more somber.

“Next to the mountains, it is the most beautiful thing in the Wasatch Back,” she said. “I’m sorry to see it go.”

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