Boulder signs 10-year agreement with Sundance Institute; city details festival logistics and revenue-sharing

City staff briefed the Downtown Management Commission on a 10-year contract between the City of Boulder and the Sundance Institute that council approved last week as Resolution 3 19, describing the agreement’s major logistics and the city’s commitments.

The staff presenter said the city expects an 11-day festival window in late January 2027 and anticipates about 90,000 attendees across the run, with peak single-day crowd estimates in the 35,000–40,000 range. "We anticipate about 90,000 attendees in the first year," the presenter said, and noted staff is still finalizing the festival footprint and venue list.

Staff outlined two contract commitments that affect downtown operations: offering city-owned space (identified in the bid as commercial space at 1500 Pearl, including Suite 300 and adjacent suites) on a one-year lease with automatic renewals, and a parking revenue-sharing mechanism. The presenter said staff has valued roughly 200,000 parking event uses and agreed to share up to $500,000 annually with the festival "based on the revenue coming in," though implementation details (gross vs. net accounting and vendor expenses) remain to be worked out with legal review.

To expand lodging capacity, the city will establish a temporary short-term rental pathway called "Homes for Sundance," a festival-specific short-term rental license that staff described as intended to ease short-term hosting for homeowners during the festival period. Staff said the city may reserve limited inspection rights for those rentals.

Staff said the contract and the competitive incentive package required coordination across state, regional and local partners and included fee waivers, renewable-energy credits and targeted financial incentives. The presentation noted that staff intentionally avoided overcommitting city revenue streams; the city did not agree to sales tax sharing but did include accommodations-tax revenue sharing and parking revenue sharing in the package.

Commissioners and downtown stakeholders asked pointed questions during the briefing about sponsor activations, which venues will host events and whether major sponsors would replicate large off-site activations (as seen at other festivals). Staff said there could be up to 24 venues and a variety of sponsor activations across the city, and that regional transportation coordination will be essential to move attendees between venues.

Housing and displacement concerns surfaced during follow-up discussion. One commissioner warned of "potential for a lot of people getting pushed out of Boulder," and staff said the city and the institute are exploring policy tools, including the possibility of a residential vacancy tax, and additional regulations tied to the festival’s short-term rental program to mitigate residential-market disruption.

Next steps: staff said more detailed implementation work (parking rates, vendor arrangement for gateless systems, net vs. gross revenue-sharing calculations, and final site lists) will continue; the commission was advised that staff will provide additional details as they are finalized and coordinate with downtown partners ahead of the festival.