Happy Monday, Longmont! Colorado officially turned 150 years old on Saturday but somehow, the most enduring tradition is still getting stuck in traffic in I-70. Or stuck behind a train. Or in snow. We’ve come so far.

Today, we’re breaking down how Longmont is planning for the Sundance Film Festival, a local team is competing at the world’s biggest pool tournament, and a look back at Longmont’s weather in July.

Let’s dive in.

As Boulder prepares to host the Sundance Film Festival for the first time, Longmont is figuring out how to reap the benefits from one of film’s most prestigious events.

In tomorrow’s Longmont City Council study session, city staff will provide a presentation on festival planning updates. The festival is planned for January 21-31, expected to host over 72,000 people and provide roughly $132 million of economic impact for the region. To maximize Sundance’s impact, Longmont’s tourism, transportation, and planning teams are all scrambling to prepare.

Lodging:

Longmont has 1,006 hotel rooms, including Hotel Longmont’s 84 rooms. Despite being roughly 15 miles from the festival’s epicenter, the city believes its lodging options could overflow. But since nobody knows which movies will be screened and when they’ll be played, the heaviest influx of reservations won’t occur until about a month before the festival. To prepare for the demand, Longmont may open the door for more people to rent out their homes by mirroring Boulder’s Festival Lodging Rental License. This…

Transportation:

The City of Longmont and RTD are teaming up to offer expanded service during the festival:

Marketing:

Visit Longmont hopes to use Sundance Film Festival as a launch pad for increased tourism in the city throughout the year, not just from out-of-state visitors, but for Coloradoans, too. The agency hopes more Front Range residents will see Longmont as a place to “meet in the middle.”

Big picture:

As part of Visit Longmont’s marketing program, a study is being conducted to better understand how visitors perceive the city. Top factors driving visitation will be later leveraged for future programming.

A hot & dry July for Longmont despite late push: Longmont finished the month of July collecting 0.72 inches of rain, according to the National Weather Service’s Vance Brand Airport measurements. However, a caveat must be added since other areas of Longmont, particularly in the north, received nearly two inches in July, which is slightly above the historical average for the area. NWS data also shows Longmont recorded three days in July over 100 degrees, twice reaching 102. All but five days in July reached 90 degrees at some point in the day.

City staff to recommend modifying contract with Longmont Public Media after bumpy first year: Last year, the City of Longmont dished out a $210,000 one-year contract to LPM to provide video services, such as the public broadcast of city meetings. A city report says LPM “generally met the city’s production needs,” even going above and beyond in some cases. But there were a few issues, including several late deliveries and one instance of missed event coverage. At tomorrow’s Longmont City Council study session, city staff will recommend continuing the partnership but with some adjustments. City council will then make the final decision, which could include opening the search for a new partner.

Kuper Wine Bar’s ribbon-cutting: Tomorrow at 4 p.m., one of Longmont’s only wine bars is cutting the ribbon on its new location at 704 Main St. Along with the Longmont Chamber of Commerce, Kuper is celebrating their move into the bigger space from roughly a block away. Their first day of business was July 15. The new space has an expanded patio, new tasting room, and a club room. Ribbon cuttings are free and open to the public.

While most people are heading to the pool in August, others are focusing on shooting pool.

The Longmont-based pool team, named Castaways, is heading to Las Vegas this week to compete in the APA World Pool Championships for a shot at the $30,000 grand prize.

The 7-player squad was one of only a handful of Colorado teams, and the only from Longmont, who qualified for the tournament. Other tournament details:

To learn more, click here.

Boulder County Fair: One of Longmont’s biggest events of the year begins on Wednesday. The 5-day fair kicks off at 9 a.m. with 4-H and FFA sheep shows while the carnival opens for the first time at 5 p.m. Thursday events include Touch a Truck, the All Goat Costume Contest, and the CPRA rodeo. The fair continues until Sunday. Learn more here.

National Night Out: Tomorrow night, join the Longmont Public Safety team for food, fun, and community connection at the annual gathering of cops and the people they serve. Enjoy free hot dogs, chips and drinks while meeting with officers, firefighters, park rangers and many more. To sweeten the deal, the hot dogs…are provided by Marco’s. There’s no reason not to go, now. It takes place from 5 -7 p.m. in the Dry Creek Community Park parking lot.

Open Chess Night: As the dog days of summer drag on, help your kids fire up their brains by heading to the Longmont Public Library on Tuesday for its weekly chess night. The informal evening is open to all ages and abilities, and chess sets and instruction are provided. It takes place on the second floor from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. Fun fact: The popularity of chess is spiking among NBA players.