After a year-long search, Boulder, Colorado landed the winning bid to host the Sundance Film Festival starting in 2027, with the official announcement dropping on March 27. Festival veterans are already waxing poetic about their favorite Park City haunts, but it should be noted there are many parallels to Sundance’s new home, likely a big reason it was chosen in the first place.
The walkable Pearl Street at the heart of Boulder will be the new Main Street. It is filled with shops, restaurants and other storefronts that can easily be flipped into the Chase Sapphire Lounge, where you still can avoid eye contact with whomever you are trying to avoid by staring into your watered-down tequila soda. Like Park City, Boulder is surrounded by the Rockies, but festivalgoers will stare at the Flatirons as opposed to Utah’s Wasatch Mountains as they wait to get into the Chase Sapphire Lounge for the most watered-down tequila soda of their lives. The charming Boulder Theater will remind people of Park City’s Egyptian, in that you will take photos of the marque for Instagram and likely never step foot inside. And it will still take you an hour to get from the airport to your hotel.
Of course, there are notable differences between Park City and Boulder.
While Park City was a vacation town filled with second or third homes of the affluent from Hollywood, tech and business, Boulder is a through-and-through college town. (The median listing price for a home in Park City in February 2025 was $2.2 million as compared to Boulder’s $800,000, according to Realtor.com.) This means a change to the non-industry audience, with a shift from bored rich people asking in loud whispers “Is this a metaphor for something?” to bored 21-year-olds getting extra credit for a gen ed requirement.
Below is an (extremely) early lay of the land for the 2027 festival.
Hardest Reservations for You (Your Assistant) to Get
So long Riverhorse and Grappa. With a Michelin star and some James Beard Awards to boot it seems that the Italian offering Frasca Food and Wine will no doubt be a coveted table. Other likely to book up far in advance are farm-to-table spot Bramble & Hare, Tomahawk slinging Steakhouse No. 316, elevated Mexican outpost Cozobi Fonda Fina and tapas restaurant Corrida, notable for its view of the surrounding Flatirons and an equally breathtaking Queso Asado.
Where You’ll Be Doing Back-to-Back Screenings
Sundance hasn’t announced the official theaters for the 2027 fest, but a major priority for its new home was a space with over 1,300 seats for splashy premieres. With this in mind, meet the Macky. It’s the auditorium on CU Boulder’s campus, which has space for over 2,000 and, like almost any building on a college campus, is within walking distance of a Chipotle and a Panda Express.
A view of Macky Auditorium in Boulder, Colorado.
Photo credit: Reilly Kaczmarek/Courtesy of Sundance Film Festival
Where to Ski When You Say You’re Taking Meetings
The ski lift at the bottom of Main Street acted as a quick getaway in between screenings, while Deer Valley is where you could reliably find whatever agent wasn’t returning your calls. In Boulder, your new hill is likely to be Eldora, roughly a 35-minute drive from downtown Boulder and, for those of us without sedans driven by support staff, there is a bus direct from Boulder to the mountain. Currently, it’s $99 for a day pass (Deer Valley is $289 as of April 2025). Eldora has only 53 trails, but the better-known and bigger Colorado peaks like Arapahoe Basin, Breckenridge and Keystone are going to net you a three-hour drive time round trip, while Vail is a two-hour drive, one way.
Hotels You’ll Be Booking for Your Client
Likely one of the biggest changes for the Sundance regular will be accommodations. While Boulder mercifully over-indexes on affordable housing options (think chain hotel options with “suites” or “inn” suffixes), the lack of five-star options akin to Park City’s St. Regis and Montage will no doubt cause a run on reservations. The locally owned boutique St. Julien Hotel will be the most in-demand, with only 201 guest rooms, along with the Victorian-inspired Boulderado. For the faint of heart, never fear, there is the Four Seasons in Denver.
Your New Night Cap(s)
Boulder being a college town means, if nothing else, that there are a plethora of dive bars. Taking the place of No Name Saloon and High West on your nightly circuit could be Sundown Saloon (pool and pitchers in a basement), Jungle (Mai Tais in the Rockies) or Bohemian Biergarten (European beer hall). You may just have to battle your way through some co-eds to get to the bar. And with Colorado having legalized recreational weed in 2012, there are plenty of dispensaries to patronize. Vertically integrated and locally operated, 14er has been breeding and cultivating cannabis flower and extracts since 201, it sells edibles, vapes and most anything else out of its flagship store in Boulder.
Pearl Street during a snowstorm on March 14, 2024 in Boulder, Colorado.
Photo by Mark Makela/Getty Images
Where to Get a Legitimately Quick Bite
Next to dehydration and missing texts from your boss, malnourishment is the biggest threat to any Sundance festivalgoer. And it’s looking like Boulder will be far more accommodating than Park City to the masses in need of a 30-minute meal in between screenings. The Sink is a staple since serving burgers and beers (not to mention a 5-minute walk from the Macky) while Avanti on Pearl Street offers everything from pizza to ramen in a food hall venue. Hot dog outpost Mustard’s Last Stand and sub shop Cheba Hut can be your new answer to El Chubasco.