Park City during the Sundance Film Festival could be as crowded as it has been since the start of the pandemic.
Although the scene on Thursday, the first day of the festival, seemed muted by the evening hours, the weekend will provide a better measure of whether Sundance reaches toward levels of the pre-pandemic era. There would be shoulder-to-shoulder crowds on the Main Street sidewalks and bumper-to-bumper traffic on Main Street and elsewhere during Sundance prior to the pandemic.
One of the early, and important, projections was made last fall by Sundance itself. Joana Vicente, the CEO of the Sundance Institute, briefly addressed the possibility of a crowded festival during an October appearance at the Marsac Building.
Vicente spoke to Mayor Nann Worel and the Park City Council about long-range plans for Sundance, but she also mentioned the 2024 festival. She told the elected officials Sundance would be “prioritizing the in-person experience” and wanted people to return to Park City for the event “hopefully to the levels of pre-pandemic.”
A current projection of the anticipated attendance was not available from Sundance late in the workweek.
The 2024 festival is the second held in person after the pandemic-forced move online for two consecutive years. The festival in 2023 proved to be a solid comeback after two years, with aggregate spending reaching nearly $126 million, according to a Sundance economic report released in the months after the event. Categories like recreation and entertainment, lodging and meals led the spending, the report found.
Sundance in the pre-pandemic era was typically an especially lucrative stretch of the calendar for a range of business sectors. Lodging rates were some of the highest of the year, restaurants were jammed and the transportation industry was hopping well into the overnight hours. The spending tends to benefit people across the economic spectrum, from business and property owners who temporarily lease space as corporate interests seeking visibility in Park City during Sundance to restaurant servers and transportation industry drivers working extended hours.
Although economic data compiled during Sundance will not be available until months after the festival, the weekend will provide at least some anecdotal evidence regarding spending. The opening days of the festival, from Thursday until Sunday, are usually the busiest of the 11-day event and can be a barometer for spending. Many businesses on Main Street, particularly restaurants and nightclubs, enjoy brisk business while there is usually fluctuation in retail depending on the goods a store carries.
Lodging projections showed Park City was expected to be busiest with people from outside of the community during the opening days of Sundance. The most recent Park City Chamber/Bureau lodging report, dated Dec. 31 and based on 21 properties representing a range of options, indicated the peak is expected on the first Saturday of Sundance, when occupancy was forecast to reach 83%. The 83% projection was also higher than the Dec. 31, 2022, forecast for any date during Sundance in 2023. The projections drop as the festival reaches the closing days, as is typical.