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Park City approves corporate setups during Sundance, including Disney, Facebook, NFL team

A Main Street building that typically houses an art gallery will be turned into a temporary corporate setup for the Sundance Film Festival. The work had already started by Tuesday morning. There will be numerous temporary corporate or not-for-profit setups along Main Street during Sundance, as is the case each year.
Jay Hamburger/Park Record

Park City leaders in recent weeks have approved a series of licenses for temporary corporate or not-for-profit setups during the Sundance Film Festival, a list that includes giants from the entertainment, digital, alcohol and automobile industries.

The Park City Council each year as Sundance approaches approves what are known as Type 2 convention sales licenses, which are needed as part of the overall permitting of the temporary setups. The elected officials have approved a series of the licenses and were scheduled to consider another set at a meeting on Tuesday.

The licenses provide a preview of the temporary corporate map of Main Street for the festival. The corporations and others temporarily leasing space in Park City for Sundance typically seek the visibility along Main Street, the center of much of the hubbub. Some of the temporary setups are private while others are open to the public, perhaps offering food, drink and free logo merchandise, with certain times blocked out for private events.



In many of the cases, the corporate interests return annually for Sundance with elaborate remodels that involve dismantling the inside of a temporarily leased space, rebuilding to their own specifications and then returning the space to its pre-fest appearance. Some of the setups operate for just the jammed first few days of Sundance and are dismantled afterward, even as the festival continues around them.

The year-round businesses or building owners see a temporary lease during Sundance as a lucrative opportunity as compared to the revenues that could be generated if the spaces remain as they are the rest of the year.



A City Hall report drafted in anticipation of a recent meeting during which the City Council approved a slew of the licenses indicated staffers were “inundated” with applications as the festival approached. The licenses are meant to ensure the temporary setups are designed to address health and safety issues.

The corporate setups approved by the City Council, as identified in the report, include:

• Silvercar/Audi, 2300 Deer Valley Drive

• TNT, TBS and HBO Docs, 306 Main St.

• Heineken USA, 710 Main St.

• The Walt Disney Company, 738 Main St.

• Fox Searchlight, 675 Main St.

• Tao, 1251 Kearns Blvd.

• Stella Artois, 1251 Kearns Blvd.

• Mastercard International, 427 Main St.

• Nestle Coffee/Chameleon Cold Brew, 427 Main St.

• Los Angeles Chargers, 710 Main St.

• CNN, 562 Main St.

• HBO, 268 Main St., 804 Main St. and 306 Main St.

• Kia Motors America, 890 Main St.

• Molson Coors Brewing Company/Peroni, 890 Main St.

• Facebook, 801 Main St. and 804 Main St.

• Apple/NVE, 657 Park Ave.

There are also public relations firms, at least one film festival from elsewhere and other organizations working in the film industry at some level. They include the State of Montana alongside the Montana Film Office at 710 Main St., the Boise Film Foundation at the same address and the Idaho Horror Film Festival, also at 710 Main St.

Some of the not-for-profit organizations slated to have space in Park City include the Mammoth Lakes Foundation, at 710 Main St., Planned Parenthood, at 427 Main St., and the Creative Coalition, at 890 Main St. The American Civil Liberties Union has a location at 625 Main St.


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