Let the Sundance madness begin

Dust off your black wardrobe, increase your stock in Deer Valley catering services and find your favorite pair of stalking/paparazzi/boogying shoes — or moonboots, if your name is Napoleon Dynamite. It's time to Sundance.

Robert Redford's annual extravaganza — a world-renowned showcase for independent movies, film industry bigwigs, celebrities, wild parties, ritz, glitz, stargazers, locals cashing in and numerous other zany things and people — kicks off tonight in Park City.

Let the gawking begin.

The festival officially throws out its red carpet tonight at 6:30 at the Eccles Theatre for the world premiere of "Happy Endings," a comedy with Lisa Kudrow, Tom Arnold, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Jesse Bradford.

Ten days, 202 films, 12,551 minutes of screen time, 40,000 visitors, 200,000-plus tickets sold and who knows how many crazy stories later, the movie madness concludes at the Broadway Centre Cinemas with a showing of a Jenny McCarthy-Carmen Electra flick "Dirty Love" (not "Sad Beginnings" as some might have thought).

So if you were hoping for a nice, quiet ski getaway in these parts, now's probably not the ideal time — especially not this weekend as Park City begins its yearly metamorphosis into "Hillywood."

"It's kind of a zoo, but it's a fun zoo," said Myles Rademan, the city's public affairs director. He added a suggestion for locals who don't like mixing and mingling with the masses: "Stay out of the way. If you don't like crowds, take a vacation."

Park City and Utah will both have fatter wallets after this 10-day festival ends because thousands will do just the opposite — take a vacation so they can join the crowds in Summit County. Last year, Sundance Film Festival generated more than $41 million for the Beehive State, including $18 million on accommodations, $8 million in restaurants, $8 million on transportation and $6 million on discretionary items. Some of that economic windfall benefits other Sundance locations in Salt Lake City, Ogden and at Redford's resort in Provo Canyon.

Park City spends about $150,000 of its annual budget just on Sundance preparation and hosting — about the same amount it gets back from sales tax revenues. But Rademan said you can't estimate the millions of dollars it receives in free advertising from media and moviegoers.

It's no wonder then, as Rademan says, "We're welcoming them with open arms." He adds that it's a year-round organizational effort on all parties' accounts and compares it to the Olympics concerning logistics.