By admin Colorado transportation officials are expanding bus schedules and offering free rides to handle the surge of Sundance Film Festival visitors to the Front Range.
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January in Boulder is typically a slow month with low visitor numbers. Not this year. Sundance is expected to bring around 40,000 to 50,000 visitors to the region between Jan. 21 and Jan. 31. That’s going to leave locals, volunteers and festival-goers trying to figure out how to get around on roads that are already clogged during rush hour.
The answer? Lure people to public transportation with free rides.
“The combination of zero-fare service on key Boulder routes and expanded service throughout the festival reflects my and the team’s commitment to reducing congestion, improving venue access, and creating a welcoming experience for visitors and residents alike,” Debra Johnson, RTD’s general manager and CEO, said in a news release Thursday.
RTD is also offering more late night and early morning rides and a temporary bus line, Route CHAT, to help people get to festival events at Chautauqua Park. Plus, anyone who needs help getting around can check out the RTD NextRide mobile app, the release said.
Want to catch a ride?
Here are the routes operating for free during the festival:
- BOLT, which provides service between Boulder and Longmont. Extended service will go from 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 a.m.
- JUMP, which offers east-west connections to venues and activity centers along the Arapahoe corridor between Boulder and Arapahoe. Extended service will go from 5:30 a.m. to 2 a.m. on weekdays, and 6:15 a.m. to 2 a.m. during weekends.
- SKIP, which serves the Broadway corridor and connects several clusters of venues in Boulder. This line will run more frequently and extend service hours to operate from 5:15 a.m. to 2 a.m. on weekdays, and 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. during weekends.
- CHAT, a temporary new service to events at Chautauqua Park, will operate every 10 minutes from 8 a.m. to midnight.
The free rides will be on routes serving the festival and officials plan to cover operating costs by tapping Clean Transit Enterprise grant funds and $1 million approved by the RTD Board for the high-volume event service pilot, which was designed to up transit capacity for Broncos games in Denver.
Other routes will be available with a regular fare but operate more frequently or with extended hours of operation. The Flatiron Flyer, which connects Denver and Boulder, will operate until 2 a.m. SkyRide routes AB and AL, which offer express rides to and from Denver International Airport, will run with additional buses.
The festival, founded by Robert Redford in 1978, began as a yearly gathering where celebrities, artists and dedicated moviegoers gathered to watch independent films ahead of awards season.
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In early 2025, the Sundance Institute announced Boulder had won the bid to host the festival, which operated in Park City, Utah, until this year. Redford, who attended CU in the 1950s and received an honorary degree in 1988, supported the move to Boulder before he died last fall.
Colorado has been vying for the festival for years.
In 2023 the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park landed the Sundance Institute Director’s Lab, an invitation-only program where screenwriters and directors hash out their big ideas — digging into scripts, rehearsing, shooting and editing scenes.
Not only is it expected to bring a bunch of people, but Colorado officials also expect visitors to spend a bunch of money.
The festival’s economic impact in the past reached $13.8 million in Utah state and local tax revenue and $69.7 million in local wages annually, according to a . The report also estimated that money spent directly by attendees came in around $138 million. Out-of-state visitors, about one-third of the festival attendees, spent an average of $735 per day.
The 2025 festival contributed a total economic impact of $196.1 million, the largest economic impact in the festival’s history. It attracted over 85,000 in-person attendees, a 17% increase from 2024, according to .
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