LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Local and state leaders were prepared to offer over $70 million to lure the Sundance Film Festival to Louisville, a pitch that also touted the city’s ability to host large events and proposed using established arts venues.
Those details were included in documents released Friday by Mayor Craig Greenberg’s administration weeks after the Sundance Institute announced that Louisville, Atlanta and Santa Fe, New Mexico didn’t make the list of three finalists for the event’s new home starting in 2027.
The proposal shows that Greenberg, a Democrat, and city officials had the backing of Republican leadership in the Kentucky General Assembly willing to provide state funds and amend existing film incentives to give Sundance a portion of tax revenue generated by the festival.
Greenberg said in a statement he was “incredibly proud” of Louisville’s bid and called the festival would have been “an unprecedented economic development driver for our city and state.”
“The proposal we put together was a true partnership, including the Governor, State Legislature, Metro Council, private and non-profit sectors,” he said. “This is the type of teamwork and innovative thinking we need to continue the positive momentum we have going on right now in Louisville.”
The city’s plan envisioned the main film screenings at the Kentucky Center, the Louisville Palace and Baxter Avenue Theatres. Other venues – such as the Muhammad Ali Center, Speed Art Museum, Old Broadway Theatre and Kentucky International Convention Center, among others – also could have been used.
It highlighted the traffic plan used during Kentucky Derby, which was listed as a "comparable event" alongside the Bourbon & Beyond and Louder Than Life music festivals and the recent PGA Championship golf tournament.
An economic impact study estimated that the festival would generate about $100 million in direct spending by out-of-state visitors based on assumptions from the 2024 festival held in Utah. Projections indicated that the festival could have resulted in nearly $10 million in state and local taxes per year.
Louisville’s financial proposal was revised after the city was named one of six finalists in July. It called for at least $73.5 million over a 10-year period in various public appropriations, incentives and other funds.
Louisville stood to offer $5 million up front. That money likely would have been $2 million from the city’s general fund, according to Metro’s economic development cabinet, and $3 million from the Louisville Tourism organization.
Kentucky state government’s initial contribution would have been $20 million approved during the next budget session of the General Assembly in 2026, although a back-up plan eyed other existing incentive programs.
After that, legislators would have sought to amend state law to let Sundance qualify for existing film incentives to give the festival a share of sales, occupations and other revenues generated as a result of its move to Kentucky.
Those “payments” would have amounted to at least $5 million annually, or $45 million over nine years, the Greenberg administration’s documents show.
The city’s proposal also included $350,000 annually from the Louisville Hotel Partnership, whose budget largely comes from local room taxes.
Louisville Tourism, the city’s convention and visitors’ bureau, spent just under $8,100 on hotel rooms, transportation and other costs in its recruiting effort, according to documents it provided WDRB News. The agency also gets most of its funding from hotel room taxes.
“This is pretty typical of a spend for our team that works to recruit new business with the type of potential economic impact that the event has,” Louisville Tourism spokeswoman Stacey Yates said in an email.
Yates said a report showing why Sundance didn’t pick Louisville – a routine part of efforts to bring events to town – hasn’t yet been received by the tourism agency.
The Sundance Institute's three finalists for the festival are its current home in Park City, Utah along with Salt lake City; Cincinnati; and Boulder, Colorado.
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