Sundance shifts festival dates so you can ski in Park City over MLK holiday

Can you ski like this guy? (He was practicing for an aerial event at the 2015 FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup held at Deer Valley ski area last week.) Park City hopes skiers will visit now that the Sundance Film Festival starts after the MLK holiday.

By Mary Forgione

Jan. 12, 2015 8 AM PT

Ski resorts in Utah’s Park City are eager to invite skiers and riders to hit the slopes during the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday this weekend, something they haven’t always been able to do.

Deer Valley Resort (skiers only), Canyons Resort and Park City Mountain Resort want to spread the word that this year visitors won’t face sold-out hotels and lodges because of the Sundance Film Festival.

The festival shifted its dates to Jan. 22 to Feb. 1, allowing ski areas to cash in on the long weekend.

“Now we have an inventory of weekend lodgings to offer to skiers,” says Linda Jager of the Park City Chamber & Visitors Bureau. Resorts have set up a web page of lodging and travel deals available Thursday through Jan. 20.

In 2013, the city and Sundance came to an agreement to avoid the date conflict and keep the film festival in the area through 2026. The city estimated it was losing $4.2 million in revenue when the holiday weekend and the festival overlapped.

What else is new at Park City: Park City Mountain was acquired last year by Vail Resorts, which means now you can ski Park City Mountain and Canyons (and a bunch of other resorts) on the same Epic ticket or pass.

Plans are under way to connect the two resorts with a gondola that would create the largest ski area in the United States, Jager says.