Categories: Show Reports, Film Festivals and Concerts

Sundance Film Festival 2011

The news out of Sundance this year was that business is once again booming. We could tell that things were hopping well before the festival too because the online ticket system was showing many shows as sold out. We may have compounded the effect by shifting our attendance to the opening week of the festival. For the past couple of Sundance’s we had attended the less populated second half. This year, for the first half anyway, it was just plain hard to get tickets. Using the online system during our allotted time slot, weeks in advance of the festival, there It should be noted that ‘sold out’ is not the term that Sundance uses. Rather they say ‘wait list only’ as some tickets are held in reserve for walk-ups. Most festivals do it this way because they also have to accommodate pass holders who pay mega-amounts to support the festival and get priority seating. We were able to use the waitlist procedure to get into three films. If you don’t mind the extra risk of not getting in at all this is a cheaper way to attend the festival. Sundance tickets bought online are in the $30 range. It’s not an exact amount because it depends on which package you buy. These tickets don’t actually guarantee a seat (fine print is on the back) but they pretty much do. But walk up to the same theater and get on the waitlist and you’ll pay only $15 if tickets are available. Or someone might walk up and hand you an extra ticket for free. It happens pretty regularly. I’d say the average waitlist line is about 20 people, it could get into the hundreds though for a popular film. In those cases most of the waitlist line will not be getting in. What usually happens though, for the average movie, it seems like most of waitlist gets in.were many movies already sold out. Red State, the new movie from Kevin Smith (Clerks) sold out in all time slots in 1 day, including a showing at 8:30 am on a Monday morning.

Read Rick Schmidt’s full report on Sundance 2011 here.

Rick Schmidt

Rick has been into audio ever since 9th grade when he commandeered a Pioneer receiver and Celestion speakers that his dad received in trade for a rusty station wagon. The stereo's original owner was forced into the deal by his newly pregnant wife. Hopefully that kid was re-exposed to hifi at a later date. Rick went on to make many extravagant stereo and home theater purchases of his own, not to mention LP's, CD's and DVD's. All financed by Rick's job as an engineer and engineering manager deep in the computer industry (ASIC design). When he's not listening or watching he might be working on the next screenplay for GenerosityFilms or painting.