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Sundance shifts festival operations to The Rink as Boulderado workers organize
The Sundance Film Festival is moving its headquarters from Hotel Boulderado to The Rink, which it says will serve as a year-round base. Hotel workers organizing to form a union are urging Sundance to use its influence in their dispute with management before the January 2027 festival.
The Sundance Film Festival is moving its headquarters from Boulder’s Hotel Boulderado to The Rink, a former skating rink converted to office space in the 1970s. The festival says the new location will bring its departments together and become its year-round home ahead of the January 2027 event.
The move comes as Hotel Boulderado employees — including housekeepers, front-desk staff and food-service workers — organize to form a union. Workers say understaffing and wages have worsened since private equity firm AJ Capital bought the 1909 hotel last year.
A Sundance spokesperson said discussions with The Rink began before the labor dispute. The festival is aware of workers’ organizing efforts and hopes hotel management and employees can reach an agreement, the spokesperson said.
A spokesperson for Unite Here, which represents hotel workers, said the union did not know why Sundance chose to move. The union called on the festival to use its influence to help resolve the dispute before it begins in January. Sundance said The Rink will allow all of its departments to work from one location during the festival, rather than operating across multiple venues.