Sundance Institute — Boulder announcement
The official March 2025 announcement confirming Sundance's relocation from Park City to Boulder beginning in 2027, including the ten-year agreement terms.
Every figure in the gazette is pulled from public reporting or official city and festival documents. Bookmark this page to verify a claim, follow city ordinances as they're updated, or dig into the underlying material yourself.
Cited in the First Edition of the gazette. Festival, city, county, tax, and industry source documents as of the founding edition.
The official March 2025 announcement confirming Sundance's relocation from Park City to Boulder beginning in 2027, including the ten-year agreement terms.
Confirmed festival dates (January 21–31, 2027) and the fifteen venues spread across downtown Boulder, the CU campus, University Hill, and Chautauqua Park.
The official economic impact study from the 2025 festival in Park City. The source for the attendance, out-of-state spending, jobs, wages, and tax revenue figures cited in the gazette's front-page scale table.
Coverage of the ~$2.1M annual city support package: free HOP transit, up to 5,000 e-bike passes, $500K in free parking, public-safety staffing, renewable energy credits, and the festival liaison position.
The September 2025 city council approval of the Festival Lodging License — the special STR pathway built specifically for Sundance that lifts the owner-occupancy requirement.
The April 2026 ordinance allowing tenants to sublease their homes during Sundance with written landlord permission. Licensing for tenants begins May 2026.
Official application portal and rules for Boulder's standard Short-Term Rental License (primary residence required) and the new Festival Lodging License. Fees, durations, required disclosures, and renewal terms.
Current City of Boulder tax rates including the 7.50% accommodations tax and 2.00% affordable-housing impact fee. Useful to confirm the tax stack before filing.
Operational details for the 2027 festival: traffic patterns, transit changes, parking shifts, and city services around the venues. Updated as the festival approaches.
Boulder County's short-term rental rules for unincorporated areas, including occupancy caps (up to 8 or septic limit), parking requirements, and licensing process.
The federal 14-day rule. If your home is your primary residence and you rent it for fourteen days or fewer per year, the income is not federally taxable. Stay inside this window and the Sundance income can be tax-free.
Which Colorado taxes Airbnb collects and remits on behalf of hosts. Coverage is not uniform across all jurisdictions — confirm before assuming the platform handles every layer.
National short-term rental insurance specialist. Dedicated STR policies cover guest-caused damage, theft, liability for guest injuries, and loss of income — gaps standard homeowner's policies typically exclude.
Northern Colorado public radio. Ongoing coverage of the regional transit response to Sundance, including HOP, BOLT, and Flatiron Flyer service updates.
Industry trade coverage of Sundance leadership and programming, including David Linde's January 2026 appointment as CEO of the Sundance Institute.
Ongoing reporting on how Park City's economy and real estate market are adjusting to the festival's departure — useful context for what Boulder may experience over the next decade.
Sources cited or added in the Second Edition — dispatches since April, deeper Park City research, neighborhood detail, and the data behind the bedroom-gap and money-math features.
Coverage of Ordinance 8743, the April 2026 vote that allowed tenants to sublease during Sundance with written landlord consent. The lead headline for the Second Edition.
Northern Colorado public radio's reporting on Ordinance 8743, including fee structures ($75 for properties with existing Long-Term Rental Licenses, $190 + $25 otherwise).
City budget analysts say publicly that Sundance revenue will be added to the sales-tax model only after the dollars arrive. A useful counterweight to optimistic forecasts.
Coverage of the recommended draft of the Boulder Valley Comp Plan moving to adoption hearings in June 2026 — the housing-supply context the festival arrives inside of.
The City's official operations hub for special-event policy as it's finalized for 2027 — parking, transit, public-safety staffing, road closures. Bookmark for operational updates.
Updated official program page for the Festival Lodging Rental License, including the 2026 tenant sublease pathway, application fees, and qualifying festival events.
CU's announcement of campus-venue upgrades for the festival: Dolby Atmos at Macky, new screens and speaker arrays at Roe Green and Muenzinger. Construction begins May 2026.
The Institute's slate of Front Range pre-festival summer events (Napoleon Dynamite on The Green, BLKNWS in Denver, Little Miss Sunshine at Red Rocks) plus Bloomerang PR's appointment as Colorado Agency of Record.
Denver coverage of the festival's summer event lineup — how the Institute is using the months ahead of January 2027 to seed cultural presence across the Front Range.
The Chamber's centralized portal pairing commercial property owners, caterers, florists, staffing companies, and event venues with film teams and sponsors looking for lease space and activations.
Coverage of recent Pearl Street arrivals (Giant Group USA, 2nd Street) ahead of the mall's own 50th anniversary in 2027 and the festival's first year.
Survey of Main Street businesses during the 2025 festival — more than 60% reported traffic that didn't change or decreased, even as the Institute reported record overall attendance.
Local Park City radio coverage of how merchants adjusted to the festival's evolving footprint in its final years, with quotes from business owners.
Long-arc retrospective on what Sundance built — and what it left behind — for Park City, including the report that buying a Park City home now costs more than in Cape Cod or the Hamptons.
Industry reporting on Park City hotel pricing during peak Sundance, including the $2,000+/night ceiling and the Institute's own $800/night average for workers.
The economic impact of the all-virtual 2021 festival on Park City — over $100 million in lost activity. A reminder that the festival is more vulnerable than its peak numbers suggest.
The full history of the Treasure Hill development above Old Town Park City — three decades of opposition culminating in the city's $64M conservation purchase, the largest in the open-space program.
Resident testimony on how Sundance traffic affected daily life on Park Avenue — useful context for Boulder homeowners thinking about Pearl-adjacent streets during festival week.
Park City Board of Realtors' public opposition to a proposed STR moratorium — illustrates the regulatory whiplash the Second Edition describes.
Park City's official affordable housing FAQ, including the workforce-displacement math the Second Edition cites: 85% commute in, 11,000 jobs vs 8,500 residents.
The City's 2025 Moderate Income Housing Plan with the 1,864-affordable-unit target by 2032 and the underlying workforce-housing analysis.
The FHFA's annual House Price Index for Summit County (which contains Park City), beginning 1983 — the dataset behind the Second Edition's "Forty Years of Price" analysis.
The control series — Teton County, Wyoming (Jackson Hole) — used to compare Summit County's trajectory against a mountain-town peer without a marquee festival.
The pre-COVID baseline economic impact report — $182M, 3,052 jobs, $94M in wages. Useful for comparing the festival's seasonal contribution against longer-arc property-value trends.
The 2024 official report — source of the 4.14-day average festival stay and $1,603 per-visitor lodging spend figures used in the Second Edition's bedroom-gap calculation.
Boulder's third (and largest) designated historic district. Reference for the Atlas profile of Mapleton Hill — Victorian and Queen Anne stock, Landmark Alteration requirements.
Reference for the NoBo profile — the Art District, First Friday Art Walks, and the post-2025 HOP extension to Boulder Junction.
The Boulder Creek Path — Whittier's primary green amenity and a useful festival-week alternative to Pearl-corridor walking.
Official city information on Chautauqua Park — established 1898, home of the Chautauqua Auditorium (a confirmed Sundance venue) and the trailhead network into the Flatirons.
The CCA operates its own historic cottage rental program on the Chautauqua grounds — a separate lodging system not subject to Boulder's standard STR ordinance.
Local guide to trails that locals defend from tourists — Flagstaff Road, Betasso, Marshall Mesa, Shadow Canyon, Flatirons Vista — all used in the Atlas's "Hidden Boulder" callout.
Independent local restaurant guide — Il Pastaio, Carelli's, Rincon Argentino, Aloy Thai, Blackbelly, Zoe Ma Ma — sourcing for the Atlas's restaurant picks.
Coverage of Boxcar, OZO, Beleza, Trident, Alpine Modern — the coffee bars the Atlas recommends for festival-week refuge.
City of Boulder estimate, reported in BRL's September 2025 Festival Lodging coverage — the "approximately 2,900 hotel rooms in Boulder city limits" figure used in the bedroom-gap calculation.
Denver TV news coverage of early Boulder festival-week STR listings, including the "make-me-move" pricing reaching $5,000–$10,000/night on some properties.
Northern Colorado business journal analysis of Sundance's Boulder decision and its anticipated market effects.
Coverage of how surrounding Boulder County municipalities are preparing for festival overflow — relevant for homeowners considering the regional Tier Three opportunity.
Sources cited or added in the Third Edition — the $5K Mistake feature, Ordinance 8751, the Chautauqua winterization story, June's inventory dispatch, and the Chautauqua-tier property data behind the Atlas.
The centerpiece source for Part Two of the Third Edition. Tracks $5,000+/night Boulder listings, the 260-issued / 610-pending Festival Lodging counts, Visit Boulder's 70%-committed-hotels figure, and Jill Grano's warnings about the audience mismatch.
The festival's own live portal, launched in June 2026. Publishes nightly rates from $250 for a 1BR / 1BA to $1,386 for a 4BR / 2.5BA — the anchor every Boulder homeowner listing on STR platforms is now competing against in public.
bouldercoloradousa.com/sundance-film-festival
The destination-marketing arm's hospitality guide for Boulder operators and homeowners. Cautions against speculative pricing and coordinates the affordability commitment among Boulder hotels.
Coverage of the Council's new permit class for festivals of 15,000+ attendees, adopted June 18, 2026. Modeled on Park City's playbook — Boulder said so publicly. Relaxes food-truck spacing rules, sets temporary-signage standards, and formalizes special-events coordination.
The Chautauqua Auditorium winterization story: an eight-week stop-work order, $7,600 in fines, $400,000 in lost concerts, and an $8M capital campaign of which $6–7M remains to be raised. Underlies Part Three of the Third Edition.
The official festival hub, tracked in Vol. III's Looking Ahead dispatch. The Institute's traditional December lineup announcement is the next visible booking-spike moment for Boulder homeowners.
Vols. I and II hosted in full-page reader format with expanded source lists per edition. Every dispatch citation, every study, every ordinance link.
Madison & Company's Boulder office. Founded 1977. Full current portfolio, including the Chautauqua and Gold Hill listings featured in Vol. III's Atlas: 601 Chautauqua Park ($2.495M), 820 6th Street ($3.85M), 11780 Gold Hill Road ($6.995M), and 333 Bellevue Drive ($8M).
Joel Ripmaster's landing page for high-end Boulder listings, market analysis, and showing requests. The right first call for the pricing conversation the $5K Mistake feature closes on.
Sources cited in the Fourth Edition — the July 30 Shape of the Fest announcement, the September 16 pass and package pricing release, the fall Festival Lodging permit window, Chautauqua’s revised scope, and the refreshed Atlas.
Full pass and package pricing for 2027: full festival pass $7,500, first-half $6,100, second-half $4,500; Full Festival, Encore and Matinee ticket packages at $925, $675 and $350; single film tickets $37. Public sale begins October 15, with donor and membership presales October 5, 8 and 13.
Institute announcements cited in Vol. IV, including the August 31 opening of 2027 volunteer applications, with roughly 2,000 volunteers sought for the eleven-day run.
The Institute’s own lodging portal. Boulder-area vacation-rental listings there continue to advertise roughly $1,600–$3,700 a night, the band Vol. IV’s By the Numbers measures against.
Reporting on the July 30 Shape of the Fest release: fourteen venues, an eleven-day run, and an arrival flow anchored on Pearl Street with a secondary node at CU.
Coverage of the September pass and package pricing release and the October 15 public sale date.
The coordination hub for Ordinance 8751, in effect since July 2026, and the first Special Festival Event permit applications.
The posted processing window for remaining Festival Lodging Rental License activity: initial steps at roughly 120 days out, final submissions at roughly 60 days out, a useful window of September 23 through November 20, 2026.
The revised Chautauqua scope: from an $8M campaign in June to $11–15M, with roughly half raised and $7M remaining. Permits back in order and crews on schedule for January.
The three-tier lodging picture confirmed through late September: ~3,000 city hotel rooms, 10,000+ within a twenty-minute drive, 74,000+ within forty miles.
The late-2026 upgrade sequence for Macky Auditorium (Dolby Atmos), Muenzinger Auditorium and Roe Green Theatre.
Listings featured in Vol. IV’s Atlas: 601 Chautauqua Park ($2,295,000), 1480 Upland Avenue ($4,600,000), 11780 Gold Hill Road ($6,995,000), and 333 & 375 Bellevue Drive ($9,995,000). Prices subject to change, verify online.
Joel Ripmaster’s question-and-answer site on Boulder real estate. Plain answers to the questions Boulder homeowners ask most, updated between editions of the Gazette.
When the 2027 festival runs and where the venues are.
Whether and how a Boulder homeowner can rent out a home during the festival.