In 2025, the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, generated an economic impact of $196.1 million and attracted 85,472 in-person attendees — numbers that Sundance officials expect to maintain or even grow as the festival moves to Boulder.
“What we can see in Colorado and in Boulder, in particular — I don’t like to project too much on year one because we’ve got to land the plane — but I would expect it would be equal or grow even more,” Sundance Institute Board of Trustees Chair Ebs Burnough said.
Burnough was part of a Sundance panel that spoke to 400 real estate professionals and students on Thursday, held by the University of Colorado Boulder at the Limelight Boulder hotel, about how Sundance will impact Boulder’s real estate. Roughly 80,000 people are expected to descend on Boulder for the 10 days of the Sundance Film Festival in January, filling hotel rooms, restaurants and the streets to the brim…