This past January, I went to the Sundance Film Festival and I decided that I will never attend again unless I have a film playing in the festival. Here's why:
1. It's totally disorganized and completely confusing - everything from buying tickets to getting to the theater is incredibly confusing. Most volunteers didn't seem to know up from down (though they were all quite friendly and tried their best to help you). The online ticketing process is complicated and obnoxious. They don't tell you where the theaters are, so if you don't know that the Egyptian theater and the Egyptian theater- Ogden, are two different things and that Ogden is an HOUR or more away from Park City (though it is a beautiful drive), you make the mistake of buying tickets that have exactly an hour between shows thinking you can get there and then have to frantically sell them like a sketchy scalper on the streets. They also lost my freaking industry credentials, so it took me all day to sort that out (the only good thing about the whole situation was that they are so disorganized that they didn't charge me for them so I saved $100 - which is good since it turns out that the credentials don't get you much anyway).
2. You can't party. Period. Unless you're at least somewhat famous, you just can't get into any of the parties. You can't even go to a bar and hang out with your friends because all the bars are being used for private parties. Every single one of them (I suppose Utah liquor license rules don't help that). Really, it sucked. I even have so crazy amazing connections to the Utah film scene and I still couldn't get myself on any lists (or well, supposedly I was supposed to be on one but when I got there, we weren't).
3. It's freaking expensive. Tickets to the shows are $15, plus every single one that you buy online (which you basically have to buy them all online if you want to see anything good at a convenient time) has something along the lines of a $3 "convenience" charge. So that's $18 per movie.
4. The bus system sucks. You can't park in Park City, so they tell you to take the buses - but then the buses aren't running when you need them (screenings start as early as 8am at some places, to which you're supposed to arrive early, but then the buses don't even start running until 8am) or they take 20 minutes to arrive and you're standing in the FREEZING COLD. Plus you have to pay to park at all the park 'n' rides. And if you have to go to Salt Lake City or Ogden, well then forget it because that means you have to take a bus to your car and then drive a bunch.
The one and only good thing I will say about Sundance is that the movies were good. In fact, most of them were great. I only saw one that I didn't like. Most of them are now coming out in theaters, and I'm really excited about that. It will give me a chance to see the ones I didn't get to see and a chance to brag about already having seen the ones I did. But even the bragging rights doesn't make it worth it when I can see them all later in the year for $12 instead of $18 (plus the plane ticket, car rental and whatnot).
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Welcome to Guilt Free Pleasures - Travel edition
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