What is there to do at the Sundance Film Festival besides watching movies? Well, let's see here.
Picture 1. You could be sitting around at the end of a film screening and surprised with a guest performance by John Legend who goes on to introduce the creator of the Sundance Film Festival, Robert Redford himself.
Pictures 2 - 7. You could do some stargazing. All the stars are walking around from different venues. If you're there on the first week, there are more stars out. Last year even Jack Black helped direct traffic on Main Street. Pictured below we saw Kristen Wiig, Mindy Kaling, Richard Kind, Keanu Reeves, one degree from Kevin Bacon, Alec Baldwin and his wife Hilaria. If you want to stargaze, make sure you do your homework. Find out who's in the movies that year and brush up on what they look like. I kicked myself when I realized James Franco walked right by me and I didn't recognize him!
Pictures 8 -10. The stars are fairly accessible. If they're not on their way to a screening, interview or party they might even stop to take pictures. Ryan Gosling is not above taking selfies. I was able to stop Jemaine Clement from my favorite comedic musical duo The Flight of the Conchords. He was there for the screening of "People, Places, Things", a movie in which he both starred and directed. My friend also had the opportunity to take a quick pic with Lena Dunham after the Q and A session for the screening of her documentary "It's me, Hilary: The Man Who Drew Eloise."
Picture 11. You can relax in one of the several lounges including the Music Cafe featuring up and coming artists like Seafret pictured here.
Picture 12. Of course you need a picture under the marquee of the famous Egyptian Theater
Picture 13. If you're lucky you can sneak onto a balcony and look down on the crowds. Balconies are usually for media outlets to do their interviews with stars. As luck would have it, Rolling Stone was breaking down their interview set so they let us hang out. It was fun to watch people look up at us and wonder if we were "somebody."
Picture 14. You'll never know who you'll be sitting next to in the theater. During a screening of "Sleeping With Other People", the nice Italian gentleman sitting next to me was a new director Lamberto Sanfelice. His film "Chlorine" was selected to compete in Sundance's World Cinema category.
Picture 15. Who knows, you might even run into some Olympians like the 2014 Gold Medalists Meryl Davis and Charlie White.
Picture 16. There are many venues that offer different experiences. The New Frontier lounge had some cool virtual reality experiences. This is me putting on the Oculus Rift and laying on a bird-like contraption to fly over San Francisco. It was a blast! They even had wind blowing in my hair! Here's a video explaining the Birdly experience.
If you go.
At the least get your hands on the Credentials. This year they go for $200, but if you know someone who's not using them that day, they are transferable. The Credentials are what get you into all the fun venues with music, activities, experiences, and guest panels. Some lounges included free cocktails, but definitely a lot of SWAG. So bring a SWAG bag!
How do you get tickets.
- You can buy advanced tickets online here.
- You can buy tickets the morning of the movie. That requires you to wake up early and face the cold Park City morning. Then you must wait in line until the ticket booth opens with the coffee you had to walk 5 blocks to find because there's no Starbucks.
- Another way to score tickets is through their eWaitlist. Get the Sundance app and learn how to use the eWaitlist. In the event that ticket holders don't go to their movie, people on the eWaitlist get their ticket. You will find yourself counting down the seconds until the eWaitlist opens for your movie so you can click on the button at the exact second, then you'll most likely end up with number 25 or more. But don't worry, we were able to get into movies with our numbers in the twenties. It varies depending on the size of the venue.
- Many times sponsors will hold their own screening of a movie and just give away tickets. We were at the right place at the right time and scored tickets for the screening of True Story. I feel obligated to now let you know the free tickets were sponsored by Lenscrafters. Thanks Lenscrafters for the tickets and for having your people walk through the line and clean all our glasses. The movie was much clearer thanks to you!
- There's always Craigslist.
No expectations.
I didn't know what to expect my first time at Sundance. I feel with no expectations, we can fully experience it without pre-judgement. Just enjoy it and take it all in. You might never be back. Great advice for everything you do.
