The 2012 Sundance Film Festival starts this week on Thursday, January 19th and goes through Sunday, January 29th. If you haven’t already pre-purchased passes and/or ticket packages to films and events you can still attend the festival and watch films by purchasing individual tickets.
For Festival Beginners
Knowledgeable Festival volunteers known as “Festival Insiders” will be hanging out and about Main Street and venues with “Ask Me” buttons to answer all your questions. There are also free one-hour “How To Fest” tours that will be given daily at 10am from Jan 20th-28th to help you figure things out. Just meet on the patio at the Sundance House, no registration required.
How Can I Get Tickets?
Egyptian Theatre on Main Street in Park Ctiy
You can no longer purchase Festival passes and ticket packages but you still can purchase individual tickets for $15, if available, either on the day of show which are released at the box office at 8am, wait list tickets at the Theatre and open tickets online (from Jan 17th-Jan 27) and the main box offices. These tickets are limited so you may not be able to see all the movies you want, especially for opening weekend and Premiere categories, but there certainly will be some still available.
Go to the Individual Ticket page at the Sundance Film Festival website to view what is available for purchasing online (as open tickets) or more information about day of show and wait list tickets.
Where Can I Park?
There will be free and paid parking lots available, but note that many places that you usually are able to park in Park City will be closed during the Festival. Take advantage of the free Park City buses and the free Sundance bus shuttles with routes just for the Festival. Here is a Sunndance Interactive Map to show you theatres, venues, box offices, available parking areas and shuttle route loops. And don’t try to park in business lots like the grocery store and think you can leave it there while you’re out festivaling. There will be people watching for this and you may get a ticket and/or towed.
What Celebs are Gonna Be There?
I know we’re supposed to be focused on film, or this year’s theme: “Look Again,” at the films that is and not the celebrities and glitz, but I know some of you still would like to know which celebrities are showing up, just for curiosity sake of course. Here they are and the movies they appear in: Kristen Dunst in “Bachelorette,” Bruce Willis and Catherine Zeta-Jones’ in “Lay the Favorite,” Richard Gere and Susan Saradon’s in “Arbitrage,” Sigourney Weaver and Robert De Niro in “Red Lights” and Julie Delpy and Chris Rock in “2 Days in New York,” Liv Tyler in “Robot and Frank,” X-File co-stars David Duchovny in “Goats,”and Gillian Anderson in “Shadow Dancer” and director Spike Lee of “Red Hook Summer.” you can take a look at all the 2012 Sundance Films and Events here at the 2012 Sundance Online Film Guide.
If you can’t get tickets to any of the films you want, it’s still fun to just walk around Main Street. You can check out some of the venues that everyone is allowed to attend without credentials (crowd permitting) and also a chance to collect some free sponsor goods – we got a whole set of Stella Artois glasses one year. And like I always say, this is a good time to go skiing or boarding ’cause there are more people in town watching films this week than are on the slopes. And even better yet, there’s lots of snow in the forecast… woo-hoooo!