6 Things You’d Never Know About Sundance Unless You’ve Been

The Sundance Film Festival still celebrates independent cinema like no other event on earth, 30 years in. Robert Redford's creation is unlike any other entertainment smorgasbord in the U.S., primarily due to its unusual location.

Each year in January, filmmakers, actors, production staff, journalists, and what feels like just about every other person on earth, descend upon Park City, UT, a little enclave north of Salt Lake City. It’s a cozy ski town, surrounded by resorts and mountains striped with ski runs — a lift even rises straight from the town’s center. It’s a seriously stark contrast to sunny, mild SoCal, where many of the attendees hail from.

While you can bump into celebrities — like Jon Hamm and Daniel Radcliffe, who both attended this year — the festival honors the entire process of filmmaking, not just the famous faces or the finished product. Companies such as Dolby, Canon, and Samsung even have a presence, helping both budding and established creatives take advantage of the latest technologies, from stellar surround sound and audio mixing to embracing virtual reality.

Dolby brought us out to Sundance to check out the experience firsthand, and we can safely say there were some aspects of the festival we did not expect.

Here are six things you’d never know about Sundance Film Festival unless you’ve actually gone.