Ten Minutes-Sydney L. and Hali

The Sundance Film Festival is the largest film festival in the United States, and with the films come two things: tourists and traffic. In the small town of Park City, the estimated population of 8,000 (United States Census Bureau) is overcrowded during the ten days of Sundance. According to Fox 13 News, about 60,000 people travel through the city per day. This makes the ten days of Sundance the busiest days of the year for Park City.


With so many people on the roads, the locals and students who are trying to get to work or to school are delayed. In the morning, school buses are slowed due to stop-and-go traffic, which results in students arriving at school at least fifteen minutes late. That fifteen minutes that are lost frequently cause students to arrive to their first period classes as late as - or, sometimes, even after - the tardy bell.








After school, things are even more hectic. Instead of getting out at 2:25, students are released at 2:15, ten minutes early. The buses that have to pick up both the Treasure Mountain Junior High kids and the High School kids have to adjust their routes. Students at the high school are no longer allowed to be picked up in the front of the school, only the back. This forces the bus driver to take a longer, slower route to pick them up. Due to the changes made to bus pick-ups and drop-offs, many kids at Treasure and the High School have not been able to find their bus, resulting in some kids being left stranded at school.







Why do students get out ten minutes early during Sundance? According to Mrs. Bev Pacal at the front office of Treasure Mountain Junior High, “movies start at 3:15 or 3:30” and the Sundance Institute doesn’t want to add student traffic to the Sundance traffic. Mrs Pacal states, “The whole community has benefited by our early release, because we are not adding to the traffic jam.” The only staff and faculty members who are affected are the teachers with fourth period classes, because teachers “have to adjust their teaching plans because they lose ten minutes.” It's fortunate for everyone living in Park City that Sundance only lasts ten days.