This winter, the Gordon Gamm Theater at the Dairy Arts Center is getting a new projector on a trolley. Technicians can roll it out of the way whenever a dance company or theater troupe needs the stage back. That one piece of equipment shows how Sundance's first Boulder edition fits into Central Boulder. The festival runs January 21 through 31, 2027. The rooms it borrows for those eleven days keep running their own seasons for the rest of the year, and much of the work going into them now is built with that in mind.
The Dairy Is Being Retrofitted Around Its Own Calendar
Of all the Central Boulder venues, the Dairy at 2590 Walnut has the biggest Sundance role. It's a screening venue and also the main home of New Frontier, Sundance's program for experimental work that combines film, art and technology. Sundance's own profile of the Dairy points out that the Boedecker Theater already runs as an independent cinema with a program that changes weekly, and documentaries make up about 40 percent of what it shows. So the festival is moving into a room that already does most of what it needs.
The Boedecker's upgrade is the screen. The Boedecker's speakers sit behind the screen, so its surface is perforated to let sound through. In an interview with the Daily Camera, Dairy Executive Director Melissa Fathman explained the reason for the replacement: "The smaller those holes are, the better the picture quality, so we're getting smaller holes." Regular Boedecker audiences will be watching on that screen long after the festival ends.
The Gordon Gamm work goes further, and nearly all of it serves the building's existing tenants. Besides the rolling projector, the Dairy is adding speakers around the theater and putting acoustic treatment on the wall it shares with the Grace Gamm Theater to cut down on sound bleed. It's also replacing the Gordon Gamm's seats, which are about 20 years old. Anyone who has heard one show leaking into another next door knows that wall well. Up to 150 organizations a year use the Dairy for film, visual art, dance, music and theater, and every one of them inherits the quieter wall and the new seats.
The Dairy's only Sundance problem that won't last past January is concessions. Fathman told the Daily Camera: "We're also figuring out how to quickly serve popcorn and drinks to 15,000 people."
A Few Blocks Away, the Library Barely Changes
The Canyon Theater at Boulder Public Library's Main branch, 1001 Arapahoe Ave., comes at the same equation from the opposite side. It's hosting Sundance talks and other festival programming, but no screenings. The library had upgraded the theater's sound to movie-theater surround before festival planning started, so the only Sundance-specific work is calibrating the room to Dolby cinema standards, according to library Communications Director Maria Tormos. A February Library Director's Report, described by the Daily Camera, showed that Sundance planned to rent the space for about two weeks around the festival and bring its own theater technicians.
The Dairy is gaining permanent equipment, while the library is mostly renting out a room it had already brought up to standard. Boulder High School's auditorium, another screening venue on the 2027 map, sits between the two. Most of its improvements came from the Boulder Valley School District's voter-approved 2022 bond, and work on them began before Sundance named the school a venue in February.
| Venue | Sundance role | What's changing | Already in place |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boedecker Theater, Dairy Arts Center | Screenings; part of New Frontier's main home | New screen with smaller perforations | Weekly independent film program, about 40% documentaries |
| Gordon Gamm Theater, Dairy Arts Center | Screenings; part of New Frontier's main home | Rolling projector, added speakers, acoustic treatment on the shared wall, new seats | Live theater and dance |
| Canyon Theater, Boulder Public Library Main | Talks and festival programming, no screenings | Calibration to Dolby cinema standards | Upgraded surround sound installed before festival planning |
| Boulder High School Auditorium | Screenings | New carpet, LED lighting, projector and screen, accessibility work; new seats delayed as of BVSD's August update | Longtime Boulder International Film Festival venue |
The Boulder High seats are still a question. The district finished an accessibility upgrade in the auditorium this summer, but its August update said the new seats had been delayed and hadn't been installed yet.
What a Neighbor Can Actually Get Into
Living a few blocks from the Dairy won't get you a cheaper ticket. Sundance's head of audience development and experience, Jeff Levine, told the Daily Camera that no pass or package is reserved for Boulder or Colorado residents. That's a change from Utah, where residents could buy a 10-ticket Locals Ticket Package for $675 for the 2026 festival while the general full-festival package cost $920.
Levine said three 2027 packages were designed with locals in mind, though anyone can buy them. They went on sale with the public pass and package sale on October 15:
- Matinee Ticket Package, $350: 10 screenings that start before 5 p.m., January 25 through 29.
- Second Half Ticket Package, $450: 10 screenings, January 27 through 31.
- Encore Ticket Package, $675: 10 screenings, not including any film's first public screening.
None of these covers opening-weekend premieres, so check the restrictions against what you actually want to see. If you only plan to see a film or two, you can skip packages altogether. Single tickets go on sale January 8 for $37 each, and Levine called that the better route for casual viewers. Package holders pick their screenings first, starting January 7, after the lineup is announced in December. The full list of options is on Sundance's ticket page.
The cheapest way in costs nothing. Levine said most offscreen events, including festival talks and conversations, will be free and seated first-come, first-served. Some New Frontier programs will be free as well, which makes the Dairy the likeliest place in Central Boulder to walk in without a ticket. The list of those sessions and how to attend them hasn't been released yet.
There are two other ways in with real deadlines. Sundance volunteer applications close October 30, 2026, which is eight days after this post goes up. Flexible "Sign Up" volunteers commit to four shifts or 24 hours of service, and depending on how much they commit, volunteers can earn free screening tickets and meal vouchers. For households with students or anyone ages 18 to 25, the Ignite program offers $15 single tickets. Free Ignite registration opens December 8, and a $275 Ignite package was part of the October 15 sale.
The Parts Still Unwritten
The street-level details haven't been published yet. The City of Boulder's festival transportation page describes the event as a "park-once experience," noting that the HOP, SKIP and JUMP buses and a Chautauqua Connector link festival destinations and that most venues have no parking of their own. The page also says more details on routes, parking and mobility options "will be released in the coming months." Visit Boulder's festival FAQ lists what's being planned: free HOP service with hours matched to the festival, up to 5,000 shared e-bike passes, park-and-ride hubs, dedicated Sundance shuttles, and express buses on major corridors. It describes these as plans, not a final schedule. So far, nothing official covers closures or parking changes along Walnut, Folsom, Arapahoe or Canyon.
The Dairy hasn't said what happens to its regular film, performance and gallery programming during the festival week, and there's no published completion date for the new Boedecker screen. If you hold a series subscription or take a class there, those two answers matter more than the festival lineup will.
The Season Before the Festival
The Dairy's regular calendar keeps going until then. Its 2026/27 COmpass REsonance series includes a December 12 program featuring mezzo-soprano Taylor Raven, about six weeks before Sundance arrives. At the library, the Main branch's Bookmark Cafe is open until 4 p.m. daily. For now, the Gordon Gamm stage still belongs to the companies that book it the rest of the year, and after January 31 the projector rolls out of their way.
If you're wondering how a festival week, and the equipment it leaves behind, could affect how buyers see a home within walking distance of the Dairy or the library, Kimberly Fels is glad to talk it through. Request a Concierge Consultation, and we'll look at your street with January 2027 in mind.
