The Summit County Council last week declined to contribute restaurant tax grant funds to the Sundance Institute, which has historically used the money to cover hundreds of thousands of dollars in marketing costs for the Sundance Film Festival.
The County Courthouse in 1991 implemented a 1% tax on all restaurant sales to promote tourism within the county, and the Summit County Council has since used the earnings to issue restaurant tax grants annually for the past 34 years.
The county received 57 applications requesting a total of over $7 million in grant funds for the 2025 grant cycle, according to a staff report provided by the Summit County Restaurant Tax Advisory Committee. The available funding totaled approximately $4.37 million.
The Sundance Institute this year requested $225,000 for marketing costs to promote the annual film festival to Utah residents along the Wasatch Front. The Restaurant Tax Advisory Committee did not recommend the County Council approve the full amount, however.
Instead, the committee suggested the County Council approve $85,000 in funding, or about 38% of the original request.
“Sundance announced it would be leaving Utah for Colorado, no longer making it an asset worthy of a meaningful investment,” the committee’s rationale states.
But County Councilor Roger Armstrong questioned whether Sundance should be receiving any monetary support from the county given the decision to leave the state after the 2026 festival.
“If this is the swan song, I’m not sure that reinvesting the money at this point in that particular entity is maybe the right way to go,” Armstrong said.
County Council Vice Chair Canice Harte agreed with Armstrong, saying he wasn’t sure marketing the Sundance Film Festival to Wasatch Front residents was a good use of funding when the $85,000 could contribute to a local nonprofit.
“If you said the money was being used for access, say it was kids’ access to films or to artists or something along those lines, I would really want to continue with something like that, if it’s supporting art and supporting the arts,” Harte explained. “But if it’s just being used to advertise in the Wasatch Front for an organization that’s leaving the Wasatch (Front), I’d rather take that money and invest into a local organization that is committed to helping the people in our community.”
County Council Chair Tonja Hanson pointed out the County Council made an exception for the Sundance Institute last year, too, as the organization submitted their request after the deadline.
“They came forward and we made a special concession to fund them anyway, so I think with that in mind, with them leaving and with the promotion along the Wasatch Front, I’m in agreement that we should not fund them for this year,” Hanson said.
The County Council asked the advisory committee to identify a different nonprofit that should receive the funds, and County Councilor Megan McKenna specifically requested the funds go toward an arts organization if possible.
Councilors unanimously voted to approve the advisory committee’s recommendations with the exception of the $85,000 allocated to the Sundance Institute.
The film festival received $185,307 in funding in 2024; $180,000 in 2023; $225,000 in 2022; $112,500 in 2021; and $225,000 in 2020, a total of $927,807 over a five-year period.
The Sundance Film Festival announced in March it would move to Boulder, Colorado, in 2027, ending a 40-year run in Park City that put the community at the forefront of the independent film industry, boosted the midwinter economy and established Park City as an international destination.
The 2026 event will be held in the traditional manner with Park City as the festival’s base for one last time.
Utah pledged $307.6 million to its bid to keep Sundance in Park City with the funds set to be distributed over the course of 11 years. The bid also proposed moving a bulk of the festival to the Salt Lake City area, however, with Park City becoming essentially a satellite location.
Salt Lake County in April also pulled its financial support for the film festival.
