January 21–31, 2027 · Boulder, Colorado
For the Festival’s inaugural year in its new home, The Scout Guide’s four Colorado markets — Boulder, Denver, Aspen, and Fort Collins — are coming together to present Scouted Colorado: an eleven-day curated market and gathering place built to introduce Festival visitors to the exceptional independent businesses, makers, and brands that make our state worth discovering.
We’re taking over the historic Community House at Colorado Chautauqua, directly across the green from official Festival screenings. And we’re opening a limited number of places in it.
Which brings you here?
The moment
This January, one of the most celebrated gatherings in independent film begins an entirely new chapter — and it’s happening right here in Colorado.
For eleven extraordinary days, filmmakers, artists, industry leaders, and visitors from around the world will be in Boulder. The Sundance Institute is building the Festival’s future here, and Colorado has committed to the next decade of it.
~100,000
visitors Sundance Institute representatives estimate the 2027 Festival could draw to Boulder
$196M
economic impact of the Festival’s final Park City year — an all-time high
11 days
January 21 to 31, 2027
10 years
Colorado’s initial commitment as the Festival’s new home
Boulder attendance is an estimate and may change as planning continues. The impact figure is the Sundance Institute’s reporting on its 2025 Park City Festival. Scouted Colorado does not guarantee attendance.
There will be plenty of ways for a brand to show up during the Festival.
There’s only one first year.
The address
We couldn’t imagine a more fitting home.
Colorado Chautauqua is a National Historic Landmark at the base of Boulder’s Flatirons, and more than a million people come here every year with no film festival to draw them — for the trails that start at the door, for the Dining Hall, for concerts in a hall built in 1898.
During the Festival it takes on another historic role, as venue, lodging site, and partner. The legendary Chautauqua Auditorium will host official Sundance Film Festival screenings and programming, while Scouted Colorado takes over Community House directly across the green.
It creates a remarkable intersection: international storytelling on one side, and the story of Colorado’s independent businesses on the other.
Under 500 feet
Community House to Chautauqua Auditorium — a two-minute walk
Guests come early for a screening and linger long after. They eat on the campus and walk it between films, and with nearly sixty historic cottages and two lodges, many of them wake up here.
Eleven days at the foot of the Flatirons, with an audience that came to Colorado looking for exactly what we’re putting in that room.
A Festival sponsorship can buy visibility.
A place at Chautauqua gives your brand a place in the story.
Screening schedules are set by the Festival and haven’t been announced yet. Visitor and lodging figures are Colorado Chautauqua’s own published numbers.
In partnership with
The Colorado Chautauqua Association is an independent nonprofit and the steward of one of only twenty-nine National Historic Landmarks in Colorado — the only Chautauqua west of the Mississippi still standing and still working.
The Auditorium was built in 1898 as a summer hall, open on three sides to the mountain air. Ahead of the Festival, they’re putting geothermal heating, accessibility, and new infrastructure into a 128-year-old building so it can hold an audience in January.
It’s a homecoming, too. Some of the first motion pictures ever screened in Colorado were shown in that hall, in the summer of 1898.
“Obviously, there’s the Sundance of it all, but it’s just a huge opportunity for us.”
The market
For eleven days, Community House belongs to Colorado. The market moves through the building — Grand Assembly on the main floor, the gallery that looks down on it, the Rocky Mountain Climbers’ Club with its stone walls and its fire lit — with partner spaces woven throughout and the Nordic tipi pitched on the green outside.
We’ll open with the Preview Party, an invitation-only night for partners, press, participating businesses, and The Scout Guide community. Then it runs every day of the Festival: 35+ exceptional Colorado businesses, food and beverage, special programming, private events, shopping, and plenty of opportunities to gather and connect.
Rather than telling Festival visitors where to shop local, we’re creating a place where they can experience it.
Discover. Shop. Connect. Stay awhile.
Two ways in
We’re opening Scouted Colorado to a small group of brand partners, and to the Colorado businesses we’ll fill the house with. Both close this fall.
Sponsorship
Six named sponsorships and ten Spotlight Sponsors. Present the market, host a room, or put your brand in the middle of it — with category exclusivity at the leading levels, so a competitor can’t follow you in.
Commitments close September 30, 2026
Vendor
Thirty-five or so spaces across the house, in the window that suits your year. Keep what you sell, and spend the Festival in front of an audience that came to Colorado to discover something new.
Applications close October 30, 2026
The Scout Guide didn’t arrive in Colorado because the Film Festival did. We were already here.
The Scout Guide Boulder, Denver, Aspen and Fort Collins spend every year discovering and telling the stories of exceptional businesses across this state. That is what makes Scouted Colorado possible — and Kristie Shehan, Editor and Owner of The Scout Guide Boulder, has served as a Sundance Ambassador and been part of the conversation since the move to Colorado was announced.
Together the four markets are curating the businesses, building the experience and carrying their stories before, during and after the Festival.
100+
cities across the national network
400K+
newsletter subscribers
1.2M+
social followers
4
Colorado markets presenting Scouted Colorado
The Scout Guide is a national lifestyle brand dedicated to supporting and celebrating exceptional local businesses. Through beautifully curated city guides, digital storytelling and in-person experiences, The Scout Guide connects independent businesses with people who value discovering and supporting the best of local. Founded in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2010, The Scout Guide has grown into a nationwide network spanning more than 100 cities.
Questions
It isn’t. Scouted Colorado is produced by The Scout Guide’s four Colorado markets and takes place at Colorado Chautauqua during the Festival. Film programming, ticketing, and Festival operations are all managed by the Sundance Film Festival.
Yes. The Sundance Film Festival lists it among its announced 2027 theaters, and Chautauqua describes it as a premier Festival venue, chosen for its historic character, acoustics, and screening capability.
Nearly sixty historic cottages plus two lodges — Missions House sleeps up to sixteen, and Columbine Lodge adds apartment-style units.
Chautauqua has said this lodging may be reserved during the Festival for operations, artists, and invited guests rather than the general public. Either way it’s full, and those guests wake up a short walk from our door.
Almost all of it. The market is inside Community House — heated, historic, hardwood floors, and a fire going. The exception is the Nordic tipi on the green, pitched between the Auditorium and our front door, which is a single sponsorship rather than a vendor space.
The campus is about a fifteen-minute drive from the Pearl Street Mall. The Festival publishes its own transportation guidance closer to January, and we’ll pass along Chautauqua parking and transit details as they’re confirmed.
Something we have not answered here? hello@scoutedcolorado.com
The Festival will be in Boulder for a long time. Colorado’s first year with it happens once.
Scouted Colorado is how we’re making sure the independent businesses that define this state have a place in the conversation.
Come be part of it.