With simply two days to go till Utah’s governor both indicators or vetos a controversial invoice that might ban the Delight Flag from authorities buildings within the state, the probabilities of Sundance staying within the Beehive State aren’t trying good.
At the very least in accordance with Park City‘s Mayor.
“Deputy Metropolis Supervisor Sarah Pearce and I’ve labored intently for a yr now, one yr now, with Jennifer Wesselhoff on the Park Metropolis Chamber, the mayors and employees of Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County, state elected officers and different stakeholders to reimagine a Sundance Film Festival in Utah that mixes the magic of Park Metropolis with the affordability of the Salt Lake space,” Nann Worel stated late Tuesday in her annual state of the Park Metropolis speech. Together with Gov. Spencer Cox, Utah Movie Commissioner Virginia Pearce and the opposite officers Worel talked about, the Park Metropolis chief has been an enormous advocate for the multi-million dollar United Utah effort that might see the state capitol develop into Sundance’s hub and Park Metropolis develop into the satellite tv for pc screening venue in 2027.
However bigger political winds could have blown that plan away.
“Sadly, a current invoice handed by the Utah legislature and feedback made by some legislature haven’t been useful in our bid to maintain the pageant right here,” the retiring resort city mayor informed native luminaries this night of the invoice designed to ban LGBTQ+ flags and banners on public buildings and faculties.
Worel’s remarks come as a ultimate choice on Sundance’s future anticipated very quickly, in accordance with what pageant director Eugene Hernandez told Deadline’s Mike Fleming Jr. on February 22.
After a year of bids, competition and reimagining of a post-Park City Sundance, Utah’s want to maintain the Robert Redford based fest is up in opposition to a very strong and $34 million tax incentive juiced bid from Boulder CO and a resilient effort from Cincinnati, OH. Gov. Cox and the Utah legislature have put over $3.5 million in state funds immediately on the desk on the final minute to maintain the massive bucks gross home product, tax income and employment producing Sundance within the state. But, as first Deadline reported on March 12 and apparently has intensified since, the battle to maintain Sundance that will already be misplaced partially due to the anti-Delight flag invoice, a number of sources say.
With plain pessimism in her voice, Mayor Worel added Tuesday: “Whatever the pageant’s trajectory, I’m happy with Park Metropolis’s efforts, and we are going to proceed to help the humanities and discover new alternatives. Change is inevitable with the pageant, but when the Sundance Institute chooses to depart our state, we is not going to solely survive, we are going to thrive.”
Trajectory or not, the tender to maintain Sundance native as soon as its present contract expires after the 2026 pageant faces severe headwinds from the passage earlier this month within the Republican dominated state chambers of Home Invoice 77, or the Flag Show Amendments. Headwinds so robust that they’ve doubtless irrevocably tipped the positive stability that progressive Sundance and primarily Pink State Utah have been in a position to keep the previous 40 years, I’m informed.
Even with very vocal opposition to the Rep. Trevor Lee and Sen. Daniel McCay sponsored HB77 from SLC Mayor Erin Mendenhall, direct pleas from her and others within the state to the Sundance management to recollect the historical past the Robert Redford based fest and Utah have obtained a skeptical response. The invoice is “a slap within the face,” in accordance with a well-positioned supply, to the pageant’s proclaimed values of being “vibrant, inviting and inclusive.”
Nevertheless, as a lot as Gov. Cox says he values Sundance, the 2024 re-elected politician additionally has a tough deadline of March 27 to both signal the anti-Delight flag invoice into regulation or veto it. If Cox indicators it, which sensible cash says he’ll, the measure will go into impact in early Could. Beginning months earlier than the final Park Metropolis centric Sundance subsequent yr, there can be $500 positive each day for each Delight flag flying from state funded buildings.
Objections to the invoice from the ACLU and Equality Utah have additionally seen longtime anti-Delight flag promoters Rep. Lee and Sen. McCay (who just lately stated Sundance makes “porn” and “does not fit in Utah anymore” while reposting a Deadline story) make their POV very clear on-line.
SLC Mayor Mendenhall’s workplace and Sundance didn’t reply to request for remark Tuesday. Neither Rep. Lee nor Sen. McCay acquired again to us in regards to the state of their laws with Gov. Cox or Mayor Worel’s speech.
Praising the Winter Olympics returning to Utah in 2034, Mayor Nann Worel shocked many in Park Metropolis tonight when that she introduced she is not going to be in search of a second time period. Worel, the primary lady to be Park Metropolis’s mayor, will go away workplace in January 2026 – simply earlier than the subsequent and presumably final Sundance Movie Pageant in Utah.
