Sundance Relocating to Boulder in 2027, Park City Keeps Full-Time Police

Park City’s full-time police ranks will remain intact even as the Sundance Film Festival relocates to Boulder starting in 2027, Police Chief Wade Carpenter said, easing immediate concerns about layoffs for the Park City Police Department. “there are no plans to reduce the full-time force based on the festival’s departure,” Carpenter told the Park Record, while confirming the department expects contract work tied to the festival to drop.

Officials expect the most tangible fiscal hit to come from reduced annual contract services that previously reinforced the department during the festival. Carpenter said he is unsure of the exact dollar amount but estimated the reduction could be in the low six figures; the department’s budgetary response will be reflected in the municipal 2027 fiscal year budget request, which covers mid-2026 until mid-2027.

Festival operations had been a major seasonal surge for PCPD: Park Record reporting notes Sundance was usually one of the busiest stretches of the year for the department, with traffic issues, parking problems and noise complaints common on Main Street and surrounding neighborhoods. During Sundance, up to 120 officers worked, a figure that reflects the agency’s practice of regularly tapping outside agencies for contract work to reinforce its own officer corps during the January run of the festival.

A Park Record file photo by Katie Hatzfeld shows PCPD officers on Main Street during the 2024 festival, underscoring how concentrated policing resources became each January. The department’s reliance on contracted officers for that surge helps explain why Carpenter can rule out cuts to the full-time headcount even as outside-detail revenue declines.

Some specifics remain unresolved in public accounts: the Park Record excerpts do not break down how many of the “up to 120 officers” were full-time Park City officers versus contracted personnel, and the original user-provided report is truncated mid-sentence, leaving an incomplete passage. Park City leaders and the police department will need to provide a precise dollar figure for lost contract revenue as budget planning for municipal fiscal year 2027 proceeds.

For now Park City faces a straightforward near-term decision: absorb a projected reduction in festival-related contract services within the FY2027 budget cycle while preserving full-time staffing levels that serve residents year-round. Chief Carpenter’s statement guarantees continuity in the department’s core workforce as the city prepares to retool public-safety planning following Sundance’s move to Boulder.