Tips and tricks for how to Sundance 2023 

• Courtesy Photo
• Factor in time to navigate Park City’s crowded streets.

Park City's January film festival landscape may never again look exactly the way it did in 2020—the last time folks gathered in person for both Sundance and Slamdance—but at least there's some semblance of normalcy in the idea of real people trudging through real snow from one real-world venue to another. The festival logistics have changed quite a bit, with virtual screenings now seemingly a permanent supplement to the in-person festival, so it's worth taking a look at how you can experience festival films, whether you're staying home or heading out to share the experience with other movie-lovers.

Get an online Sundance account.
However you plan on catching Sundance films, you'll need an online account. As of press time, the mobile app for the 2023 festival was not yet available, but by the opening of the festival, you'll want to have it handy in order to get on mobile waitlists (see below), find venues and more. If you ordered tickets, that online account should already exist, and you can connect to it on the app.

Be ready for the Park City experience.
If you've attended the film festival in person in previous years, you know to expect logistical challenges: winter weather conditions, traffic backups on major streets, crowded shuttle buses, etc. For those heading up for the first time, parking should be your major concern. Street parking is extremely limited, as is paid parking in lots like the China Bridge structure in Swede Alley (behind the Egyptian Theatre). Your best bets are the park-and-ride lots set up on Richardson Road (closest to the Prospector Theatre venue) and Ecker Hill (at Jeremy Ranch, just outside of Park City), with shuttle services running daily. After that, make use of the festival shuttles, but be aware that delays are common, especially during morning and evening rush hours and when day-skiers are heading out of town. However long you think you need to get from one venue or another, assume you need at least twice that long, so you don't end up missing your showtime.

Catch a movie in SLC.
For those who just don't want to mess with the mountain, there are plenty of opportunities for movies right down here in the valley. In addition to returning venues at the Broadway Centre Cinemas, Rose Wagner Center and Grand Theatre, Sundance has added the Megaplex Theatres at the Gateway to the roster of downtown spots for Sundance screenings. Each of these offers ample parking (mostly paid lots, with the exception of the Grand for its weekend offerings), or you can take a Trax train or even walk between the Megaplex, Rose Wagner and Broadway.

How to waitlist.
As of press time, most in-person screenings are officially sold out. However, that's partly a way to account for the presence of passholders—who can only attend one screening in one place at one time, after all. That leaves the time-honored tradition of the Sundance waitlist, which begins with logging on to the aforementioned app exactly two hours before the scheduled showtime of your desired screening; choose wisely, since you can only be on one waitlist at a time per two-hour window. Once you sign in to a waitlist, you'll be given a waitlist number—you can connect with a friend, though you'll each get individual consecutive numbers—to identify your place in the queue. You'll then need to be at the actual theater venue at least 30 minutes prior to showtime; tickets will then be sold (cash only, $25 per ticket) beginning 15 minutes prior to showtime. Venues vary widely regarding how many waitlist patrons are admitted, but history has shown that early mornings and late nights are the best time to get lucky, as well as at the larger venues (like Park City's Eccles Center and the Grand Theatre on State Street).

Don't forget about Slamdance.
Sundance gets all the big publicity, understandably, but Park City will also be hosting the in-person return of Slamdance at its familiar home at the Treasure Mountain Inn on Main Street. Tickets can be easier to obtain for the in-person screenings, and the casual atmosphere can allow for hanging out and chatting with a filmmaker after you've just watched their movie. Allow a little time in your schedule for an under-the-radar discovery.