The organizers of the Sundance Film Festival are considering moving the event out of its longtime home in Utah and to another state in the wake of the recently passed bill to banish the gay pride flag from government property, according to a report.
Sundance has been located in Park City, Utah, since 1981, after its first three years of being held in Salt Lake City. And while forces in the Beehive State have been attempting to entice the organizers to move the event back to Salt Lake City with the coming 2026 expiration of the festival’s contract with Park City, there may be a hitch in that campaign.
Gov. Spencer Cox even moved to put a cherry atop the proposal by moving to ensure that the festival has its $3 million state subsidy for this year. And Cox is also working to get the festival committee to move to Salt Lake City starting in 2027.
However, according to Variety, there is some unrest inside the festival over the recent 12-8 vote in the state senate passing HB77, a bill that bans the various gay, lesbian, and transgender pride flags from being displayed in schools and other government buildings.
The bill delineates which flags are allowed to be displayed on government property. That list includes the United States flag, flags of other countries, college and university flags, and the official flag of the U.S. Olympic Committee, among a few others. The list does not include activist flags such as the gay pride flags.
Variety reports that insiders are not happy about the bill, one that seems on track to being signed into law by Gov. Cox.
“It is a terrible law, a terrible look for the state,” a source said of the bill. “No matter what they say, we all know who it’s aimed at — the LGBTQ+ community, and that’s unacceptable.”
Another despairing insider told the reporter, “What are they thinking? Utah is Utah, but this goes to the heart of the community Sundance has worked years and years to develop.”
Now, it seems that festival organizers are giving more serious consideration to bids from other states including Colorado, where the city of Boulder is emerging as a top contender. And the flag bill has added more weight to Boulder’s bid, Variety claims.
To bolster their own chances, the mayors of both Park City and Salt Lake City have reportedly told Sundance officials that they oppose the flag bill. And Salt Lake officials even made a point of raising the gay pride flag over its main civic building.
One of the bill’s sponsors, Rep. Trevor Lee, insists that the goal is to make government properties “neutral” in the culture war.
“We are making sure that flags being displayed on government property are politically neutral,” he said and said that his bill should have no effect on the chances of Utah keeping or losing the Sundance festival.
Despite the leaks from insiders, the festival itself has made no official comment over the flag issue and released a statement saying only that, “We’re still working through that process. The folks from the finalist cities were at the festival. We hope to have a decision in place by end of March or early April.”
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