Sundance moves, Redditors bicker.

Preface

Sundance, the long running movie festival, has been held in Park City, UT for over 40 years. Today, the festival has announced that the 2027 festival would be hosted in Boulder, CO. The move has been a long time coming as the consideration for the new site has been going on for almost a year. Unsurprisingly, they went with the state that offered them 34 million in tax credits over the next 10 years. The move was supposedly uninfluenced by local political climate as stated by Sundance Institute board chair Ebs Burnough: "This process started 18 months ago and we've been in Utah for 40 years. So politics really didn't guide the process, it was really and truly about evolution. That's where it landed." Despite this, Redditors argue the contrary, among other things, in the post announcing the change.

https://old.reddit.com/r/Sundance/comments/1jl9uox/sundance_selects_boulder_colorado_as_new_host/

Some comments about local business

I do think we'll see a lot of those "launder money to stay in business" spots struggling post-Sundance. The housing impact was shitty with the profitability of short-term rentals impacting long term availability, but it was great some local businesses could afford to stay open by renting their space out for two weeks in January. Talked with several boutique owners who said they basically made their rent/mortgage for the year via Sundance space rentals.

As a business owner on Main St. I would say you're really overstretching here. If anything we'll have more consistent business on the street. (Neg voted)

Lol remind me in 4 years

Talking about Boulder itself

Boulder is very white, wealthy, and liberal but they're surface-level liberal, like from an ideological viewpoint, where

they're more concerned about appearing tolerant than meaningfully interacting or coexisting with marginalized folk.

As a gay person of color, going there, I often meet two types of straight white liberal Boulderites:

(1) They're overly nice to you, you know, like almost in a performative way to overemphasize they're not "those type of

white people". It's coming from a well-meaning place but it's still awkward and othering.

(2) They're nice to you but they also don't know how to interact or relate to folk that look like you so they'd rather avoid > you than risk looking uncomfortable or accidentally saying something ignorant/offensive.

Spot on. Why I left Boulder for SLC

Is this a joke?

Great description of Boulder.

It's like Get Out but a whole city.

Boulder sucks

Too bad we have to be gaslit into thinking white-butt Boulder is a better city.

It's not. It's way worse. I wanted Santa Fe. I'm from Denver, a born a bred Boulder hater. You're not going to see me defend that place ever.

Ah yes, Park City and Santa Fe are staples of diversity.

I mean you can look up the diversity percentages yourself. (-1)

Totally. Park City is right up there with keystone and telluride, tied for most diverse in the country!

Whining about state politics

Utah wanted to pass an endless amount of bigot bills to own the libs. Consider them owned

Can we please stop pretending politics had anything to do with it? Bobert came out of CO. Sundance would move to Mar a lago if they were offered $500 million. It's a capitalist exercise. (-8)

Meh. Still doesn't excuse Utah lawmakers passing bills openly hostile towards the artists Sundance purports to celebrate. The criticism is valid.

Finger pointing

Utah deserves this.

Utah is made up of people, all kinds of people, just like Atlanta and Idaho and any other red state. And we did not deserve this. Our legislators are trying to kill us, can we not have one god dammed nice thing?

No you can't. Complain to your friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers of which you must know some that voted for Trump.

Perhaps if you all laid out more personal consequences for their votes you wouldn't constantly find yourself in these situations where your legislators are set to frick with your life.

But you'll go to your Trump loving Grandma's house for Christmas, hug them, kiss them, say you love them and then go on the internet to complain that you can't have one nice thing. Maybe talk to the Trump voters first.

Incredibly disappointed in the Institute. 40 years of history doesn't seem to matter when you have corporate sponsors to please. What happened to the art?

"What happened to the art?" Are you an idiot? The state of Utah is regressing faster than any state in the country, with attacks on voting rights, the trans community, public lands, education... it's the former host that forgot about the art.

Is this a parody? It was about $$$$ (-4)

You'd like to think that because it absolves you of your worldview. No, it wasn't all about the money.

It's cuz Utah is on an anti-DEI tirade. They had to pick somewhere a trans or minority filmmaker might actually feel like they're not under attack. Blame Utah's legislature.

This is honestly great in my option, Sundance has long been constrained by Utahs strict liquor laws, having in boulder brings back the option for many new venues to open up and allows the "Main Street" area to Have more public events.

Liquor laws? Really? The most drunk, belligerent people are sundancers.

Polis is an annoying homo

I hope you all know that Boulder got Sundance because the governor threw $34MM of taxpayer money at it. Also the governor and his husband live less than a quarter mile from the main venue - and he will be there in force gladhanding all the attendees to support his run for president in 2028. This has nothing to do with the event, and everything to do with politics. And when attendees have to navigate the clusterfrick Boulder is, it'll be a short run for Sundance there.

There's more in there, but I think I got most of the best stuff.

Addendum: As someone who has been to both cities, this move is probably for the best. I've never been to the festival, but Park City is constrained by it's geographical location and has become more ritzy and expensive since the buyout in 2014. Not long until it becomes like Aspen with Moncler and Prada within walking distance of the resort. Boulder is an annoying city full of mouth breathers and people huffing their own farts, but is much bigger and can probably handle large crowds better. Boulder and CU still suck though.