If you are on a plane to Utah this weekend, don't be surprised if the entire cabin is much cooler and better looking than your average Southwest fuselage. Flights to the annual Sundance Film Festival will be carrying brand reps, publicists, agents, starlets (the bigger names will fly private), studio execs, marketing folk, the usual suspects who follow the gravy train, and Park City and Deer Valley regulars.
If you are flying from the East Coast look out for the Strategic Group, BMF Media Group and Talent Resources at JFK and Laguardia, and if you are flying from the West Coast expect to see Harrison & Shriftman, Feinstein-McGuiness, Spin Shoppe, RFPR, LFB Media Group, EFG:: Entertainment Fusion Groupand Shadow PR at Burbank and LAX - and of course Paul+Williams will be coming from both directions. They will all be setting up shop on and around Main Street with the coolest of cool brands from Fred Segal to Playstation to CARRERA Sunglasses to Levi's for a week long (9 days actually) of gift lounges, media lunches, premiere parties and dinners to ring in the celebrities at the Sundance Film Festival.
A lounge that needs no introduction ... the Kari Feinstein Style Lounge (Jan 21 - 24) is the longest running and most consistent gift lounge in Hollywood. If you are a celebrity, you know Kari Feinstein and her partner Mike McGuinness and it's just a given you will head for their house on Main Street.
Another extremely cool event going on this year at Sundance is the PlayStation Green Room (Jan 21 - 25) held at The Silver Retreat inside Silver lounge & restaurant, named for Park City's silver mining history. The VIP game room will be a kick back atmosphere with celebs and friends can play the newest PlayStation3 games including inFAMOUS 2, Killzone3 and MLB 11 The Show. Another must! The Silver Retreat will host several events for films in the festival including: Higher Ground (Vera Farmiga), Another Happy Day (Demi Moore, Kate Bosworth, Ellen Barkin, Ellen Burstyn), Salvation Boulevard (Jennifer Connelly, Marisa Tomei, Ed Harris, Pierce Brosnan), The Son of No One (Al Pacino, Katie Holmes, Channing Tatum, Ray Liotta), The Convincer (Billy Crudup, Lea Thompson, Greg Kinnear, Alan Arkin) and more. The In Style Portrait Studio and The Fresh Lounge will also housed here where celebs can get their portraits done after getting brown sugar massages, custom facials and lip treatments Fresh's new sugar lip polish.
The Studio on Main (Jan 21 - 26, 10am - 4pm) will house The Fred Segal Salon & Spa (Jan 21 - 24) and the Moving Picutres Network Media Lounge (Jan 21 -26). Eileen Colavita of Spin Shoppe PR is handling this 6 day marathon full-service Fred Segal salon & spa, Kitchen 24 pop-up Diner, Patrón "interactive bar" (sounds interesting!) and the Painted Nail (one of the coolest nail places in L.A.). The Studio will provide shuttle service around town from Cadillac - a necessity for any self-respecting celebrity or party-goer. Nobody walks in L.A., and certainly not in Sundance. The Studio on Main will host a series of VIP receptions, premiere parties, screenings and performances as well. Confirmed guests include: Kevin Spacey, Rashida Jones, Tobey McGuire, Steve Buscemi, Emma Roberts, Liv Tyler, Alicia Silverstone, Paul Giamatti, Jeremy Piven, Rob Lowe, Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel, Kate Bosworth, Stanley Tucci, Jeremy Irons and A Tribe Called Quest.
And now for something completely different - House of SWAGG / TAO at the Samsung Galaxy Tab Lift - SWAGG is a new idea that allows users to purchase, share and exchange swag and gift cards from their phones. Check out their website for a demo. Michelle Steinberg (dOMAINE), Jeffrey Best (Best Events) and the Strategic Group have banned together to bring this lounge which benefits www.standup2cancer.org from inside TAO's pop up club at the Samsung Galaxy Tab Lift. Sponsors inside the House of SWAGG include: American Apparel, popchips, Samsung, Sorel, Stella Artois, lia sophia, Patron, Solsticesunglesses.com and more.
In our experience, understated usually equals class. Such is the case with TR Suites (Jan 21 - 23) discretely named after New York based celebrity branding agency Talent Resources. The day time gift suite sponsors include The One Group (hospitality managers for STK, Tenjune, Hotel Gansevoort and more), Gypsy05 (makers of knit knee booties with rubber soles which have replace the ancient UGG), Artful Dodger & Rocawear (gifting clothing), Roll Call (a Washington DC Newspaper which will be gifting iPads and iPhones), h.wood.beauty (doing makeup), SunFX (doing spray tans), Keratin Complex and Salon Nine|Zero|One (doing blowouts), and more. Night time cocktail parties include 7 Fresh Faces in Film dinner put on by 7 for all Mankind; you may remember the 7 Fresh Faces in Fashion dinner held with Vogue here in L.A. this past fall. Same idea only the honorees are budding film stars instead of fashion stars: Olivia Crochicchia, Thomas Dekker, Kye Gallner, Felicty Jones, Adepero Oduye, Amy Semietz & Juno Temple. Rock the Vote will also have a soiree here with current party favorites DJ Mia Moretti and electric violinist Caitlin Moe (for those of you who watch the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, this was the duo performing at Kyle Richard's White Party).
New kids on the block? The CARRERA Sunglasses Escape (Jan 21-24) debuts this year at the Flying Sumo restaurant on Park Avenue during Sundance! Yay! If you've been to one of these parties here in L.A. this year (there was one at the Chateau and another at Everleigh) you can expect the same. Agencies brunches, film premiere dinners, and after-parties will be held here -- including a media brunch on Friday, the Gersh Agency's brunch on Sunday, the post-premiere parties for Morgan Spurlock's new film The Greatest Movie Ever Sold and Homework with stars from the film Emma Roberts, Blair Underwood, Rita Wilson attending ... Kudos to BMF Media Group for producing the event.
For the first time since 2006, Levi's and Dockers are returning to Sundance with a pop-up showroom on Main Street, where they will dress actors for the premieres of their anticipated films and host a selection of social events including the post premiere party for Martha Marcy May Marlene (starring Hugh Dancy, John Hawkes, and Sarah Paulson) and the premiere party for Kaboom (starring Thomas Dekker, Haley Bennett, and Kelly Lynch). The following day, a cause near and dear to our hearts, Levi's Shape What's To Come campaign, will host a media panel followed by a cocktail party for the Jennifer Siebel Newsom directed documentary Miss Representation. Panelists include Geena Davis, Gloria Steinem, Daphne Zuniga, etc. and will be moderated by Pat Mitchell.
Adrian Grenier and his band The Honey Brothers, will perform at The Superdry Experience at the Downstairs Bar on Main Street (Jan 23 - 24) - along with DJ Momjeans and Cisco Adler. For those who don't know DJ Momjeans is actually actor Danny Masterson and he is also the proud of owner of this Park City bar. The 944 Magazine Afternoon Escape will be held here on Monday and at the same time The Creative Coalition will hold their Moviemaker Mentor Series.
Rubber Duck Boots will do their usual giveaways of snow boots at the annual Alive! Expo Green Pavilion & Mix Media Luxury held at the Shadow Ridge resort. Rubber Duck Boots is synonymous with Sundance because inevitbaly by the end of the week, every single person on Main Street is wearing the exact same pair of Rubber Duck Boots. Confirmed guests to the Alive! Expo include: Demi Moore, Liv Tyler, Kevin Spacey, Ellen Barkin, Paul Bettany, Adrian Grenier, Jeremy Irons, Stanley Tucci and Isabella Rossellini. Not bad.