Local fans of the Sundance Film Festival should mark their calendars for next Tuesday, when access to the local passes and packages will go on sale. KPCW’s Leslie Thatcher explains the annual opportunity to get first dibs to Sundance 2020 films.
The annual local pass and package sale happens Tuesday, October 15th starting at noon mountain time. This is only open to those living in Utah. Sundance Senior Ticketing Manager Fabian Castillo says now is the time to make sure your account with Sundance is up to date, so you’ll be able to log in problem free.
“A couple of things we recommend our locals do over the next couple of days leading up to Tuesday,” Castillo said, “is signing on to their Sundance.org account - making sure they remember that password - because it is required to make that purchase. And if you’re having any issues with that -reaching out to our customer support team at www.sundance.org/dustomersupport and we’ll be able to reset that password for them and make sure they’re not running into any issues day of sale.”
You can log in as early as 10 am Tuesday, but Castillo says it won’t give you priority – you’ll just know you’re logged in and waiting.
“Which is when people can start going in there if they want,” Castillo said. “There is a randomization that happens right at noon, so it doesn’t matter if you’re there an hour or two hours before or ten minutes before everything gets randomized right at noon.
You will get an email in mid to late December telling you when you can select the specific films you’ re hoping to see. That will happen between January 7th and the 10th. Castillo says they hold tickets aside for each group, so even if you’re one of the last time slots on the 10th – there will still be available tickets.
“I know a lot of people get discouraged on that, but we are always optimistic and hope that people can get first choices, but we do ask everyone to have first, second and third choices just to make sure we’re covering everything.”
The Locals 10 ticket packages – which are limited to 4 tickets per screening and can be used by anyone -cost $300. The Salt Lake City 10 pack costs$250. Student packages are also available. You can also purchase a credential separately for $300 which gets you into Sundance venues, like the Music Cafe.
“Again, it gets you into the non-theater venues and gives you access to like the Chase Lounge up in Park City on Main Street. -gives you a little bit of access, he explained.”
Locals will be able to purchase individual tickets January 16th starting at noon. Again, you will need to be able to log into your Sundance account.
Townie Tuesday will be held January 28th with screenings at two different theaters.
“One of the screenings will be out at Redstone at 7 pm; the other screening is going to be held at the Park City Library at 9 pm. We went to a waitlist-only model last year and that came from a lot of the feedback we had received in prior years from our locals noticing that people that were getting those free tickets we used to hand out were being passed on to people that weren’t residents. And this is our way to do our due diligence and promise and give the locals something that we had promised them in the past,” Castillo said.
And something new for 2020 is that Best of Fest will happen on Sunday night, the last night of the festival, rather than the Monday after.
“Those screenings will happen Sunday, February 2nd. There will be two screenings at the Eccles Center – one at 6 pm and one at 9 pnm and then two screenings at the Ray Theater. Those are at 6:30 pm and 9:30 pm.”
You can log on to Sundance.org to watch a short video about all of the ticketing options.
https://www.sundance.org/festivals/sundance-film-festival/get-tickets
