PARK CITY, Utah, Sept. 15 (UPI) -- The Park City, Utah, Council and Sundance Film Festival organizers said they agreed on a deal to keep the 11-day event in the city until at least 2026.
Both sides worked on the agreement for months, with the main sticking point being the fact that sometimes the first major film festival of the year overlaps with events marking Martin Luther King Jr. Day, The [Park City] Park Record reported Saturday.
City Hall said it would miss out on about $14.4 million in revenue between 2015 and 2026 on the five years the two events overlap.
Sundance officials agreed to slightly shift the dates of the festival those five years to avoid conflict with events celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the newspaper said. Sarah Pearce, co-managing director of the Sundance Institute, said the date shifts threatens the festival's status as the first major film festival in the annual circuit, causing it to overlap with a festival in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
As part of the agreement, Sundance will keep its Utah offices at Silver Star on the edge of Thaynes Canyon through 2023.
This year the Sundance Film Festival pumped $69.5 million into the state.
