Park City Without Sundance: What January 2027 Means for Owners and Renters

January 2027 will be Park City's first January without the Sundance Film Festival in more than forty years. The festival moves to Boulder, Colorado, on a ten-year agreement, with its first edition there running January 21 to 31, 2027. For most owners the practical effect is narrower than the headlines suggest: one high-rate week becomes a normal ski week, and a snowboarding event now occupies the same weekend. The larger risk is misreading next winter's numbers, because Park City lodging was already softening for reasons that have nothing to do with film.

Why is Sundance leaving Park City?

Sundance Institute announced the move in March 2025 after a site search, and the 2026 festival, held January 22 to February 1, was the last Utah edition. Boulder committed a large public incentive package and signed for ten years. The 2027 dates fall almost exactly on Park City's historic festival window.

How much was Sundance worth to Park City?

Statewide, the 2025 festival generated $196.1 million in economic impact for Utah, its largest ever, with 85,472 attendees, about a third from out of state. The local share is smaller than that headline. In 2024, visitor spending in Park City and Summit County was about $138.3 million, of which lodging accounted for $38.7 million and dining $37.4 million.

Be careful with the statewide figure. It includes Salt Lake City and the rest of Utah, and it is often quoted as though it were Park City's alone.

How much did owners actually earn during Sundance week?

Less than the folklore, and the premium had been shrinking for years.

The clearest measurements are these:

• In 2020, Park City vacation rentals ran 59 percent paid occupancy over the festival, with the first weekend at 89 percent and the second at 56 percent. Condominiums outperformed houses, 71 percent to 52 percent.
• When the festival returned in person in January 2023 after two years online, Park City's transient room tax rose 24 percent that month, the first increase of that season.
• When the 2022 festival went online, the local visitors bureau told operators to plan for numbers resembling an average early-February week, not a collapse.

Since then the premium eroded. One Park City rental owner told the Park Record that he had stopped charging a Sundance premium because bookings had fallen to roughly 20 percent of their historical level, and a survey of 49 Main Street businesses found more than 60 percent reported flat or declining traffic during the 2025 festival.

Treat any claim that Sundance week commanded three to five times normal rates, or represented most of January's bookings, as marketing rather than data. Those numbers circulate widely and are not supported by published sources.

What is filling late January 2027?

Sports, not film. The Snow League, Shaun White's halfpipe and freeski competition, comes to Park City Mountain in late January 2027 for its second season, on the weekend Sundance used to occupy, and debuts a 22-foot halfpipe. It is a three-day event rather than a ten-day festival, and no attendance or economic projection has been published.

Two other things worth knowing:

• The new Park City Film Festival chose October, not January. Its first edition runs October 23 to 25, 2026, deliberately small at eight films.
• Park City pursued the Winter X Games and did not get them. X Games signed a three-year agreement keeping the winter event at Aspen through the 2028–29 season.

The Chamber and Visitors Bureau strategy is four-season diversification rather than a single January replacement.

Will this affect Park City property values?

There is no published evidence that Sundance week drove Park City property values, and none that buyers systematically underwrote purchases on festival-week income. The 2025 market closed at $5.75 billion in sales volume, the second-highest on record, in the same year the move was announced. Old Town, the neighborhood most associated with the festival, recorded only 53 sales that year at a median of $3.9 million.

What is fair to say: Sundance week was a reliable rate and occupancy spike, concentrated in Old Town and in condominiums, mostly on the first weekend. One week cannot carry an annual rental pro forma at these price points, and for many owners that week had already stopped performing.

The mistake to avoid next winter

Do not attribute everything soft in January 2027 to Sundance. Park City lodging was already declining before the move: transient room tax finished 2025 down 9 percent, Summit County posted the largest decline of any Utah county, and the 2025–26 season brought roughly half the normal snowpack with an early March 29 closing. The Chamber cut more than $1 million from its budget as a result.

As of late August, area occupancy for the coming six months was pacing about 5 percent ahead of last year, with rates about 6 percent lower. If January 2027 disappoints, snow and pricing will be part of the answer, and the honest analysis separates the two.

What should owners do this season?

1. Reprice that week deliberately. If you carried a Sundance rate, compare it with the same week in a non-festival year, not with last January.
2. Market to the event that is actually here. Ski-access units within reach of Park City Mountain have a new audience on that weekend.
3. Watch bookings, not narratives. Your own pace data for late January will tell you more than any forecast.
4. Keep the long view. Park City ran two Januarys without an in-person festival during the pandemic and the market kept working.

Frequently asked questions

Is Sundance leaving Park City?

Yes. The 2026 festival was the last in Park City. Sundance moves to Boulder, Colorado, beginning with the January 21 to 31, 2027 edition, under a ten-year agreement.

How much was the Sundance Film Festival worth to Utah?

The 2025 festival generated $196.1 million in statewide economic impact with 85,472 attendees. Park City and Summit County visitor spending was about $138.3 million in 2024.

Will Park City rental income drop without Sundance?

For most owners the effect is limited to one week, and many had already stopped earning a festival premium. Expect that week to price like a normal ski week rather than a peak week.

What is replacing Sundance in Park City in January 2027?

The Snow League, a halfpipe and freeski competition at Park City Mountain, is scheduled for the same late-January weekend. A separate new Park City Film Festival runs in October rather than January.

Will Park City home values fall because Sundance left?

There is no published evidence linking Sundance to property values. The 2025 market posted its second-highest sales volume on record in the year the move was announced.

Related: Park City Market Report, Fall 2026 · Can You Airbnb Your Park City Home?

Michael Diamond is an Associate Broker and Team Lead with Park City Brokers | Coldwell Banker Global Luxury, Utah license 9492175-AB00. Figures are from the sources cited as of September 2026 and should be confirmed for any specific property.