The Sundance Film Festival unveiled dates and venues for its 2027 event — its first year in Boulder.

Why it matters: The venue announcements confirm Sundance will be centered in the heart of Boulder and make use of the city's downtown and campus areas.

The latest: Sundance revealed the festival will take place Jan. 21-31, 2027, and shared a list of official theater venues for the event:

• Boulder High School Auditorium
• Boulder Theater
• Casey Middle School Auditorium
• Chautauqua Auditorium
• Cinemark Century Boulder
• eTown Hall
• Dairy Arts Center's Gordon Gamm Theater and Boedecker Theater
• University of Colorado Boulder's Macky Auditorium Concert Hall, Muenzinger Auditorium and Roe Green Theatre

Other locations hosting festival talks and events include Canyon Theater at the Boulder Public Library and Old Main at CU Boulder.

Zoom in: All official events will take place within Boulder city limits, with most activities in downtown and at CU Boulder's campus.

Context: Unlike Sundance's split setup in Park City and Salt Lake City, Boulder can keep everything centralized, said Cris Jones, the city's director of strategic partnerships.

• "We're going to be able to more efficiently welcome the entire region in a way that Park City was just infrastructurally unable to do," he told us a few weeks ago.

Between the lines: Though Boulder doesn't have enough hotel rooms to accommodate all Sundance attendees, its venue setup is designed to keep as many people in the city as possible.

• Venues will open their doors for residents to enjoy the festival, with Jones noting that while debut tickets might be a hot commodity, locals can get into subsequent screenings.

CU is also a big winner, as chancellor Justin Schwartz said hosting events will gives students a rare opportunity to interact with filmmakers and get a behind-the-scenes view of a large-scale event.

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Colorado Democrats are urging the Department of Homeland Security to scrap plans for a new ICE detention facility in rural Weld County.

Why it matters: The move is intended to pressure the Trump administration to rein in its aggressive expansion of immigration detention as public confidence in ICE sours.

State of play: A letter, co-signed by U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen, U.S. Sens. John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet, to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and acting ICE director Todd Lyons outlined demands.

• Democrats say they are "deeply concerned" that the Colorado expansion will mean less oversight and accountability due to its remote location — far less accessible than the existing Aurora site, which faces its own oversight challenges.

Catch up quick: Plans for a new facility roughly 30 miles northeast of Denver in Hudson call for taking over a dormant prison called the Big Horn Correctional Facility, per records obtained by the ACLU Colorado.

• The federal government hasn't shared many public details about the project.

By the numbers: ICE arrests in Denver are up 211% since Trump's second term started last January, per an analysis from University of Colorado Boulder researchers released last week.

• Meanwhile, in-custody deaths at ICE facilities reached a two-decade high last year. The increased enforcement has prompted some Denver-area community leaders to call for abolishing ICE.

Context: Aurora houses the state's only ICE detention facility, containing 1,532 beds. Adding the Hudson facility would expand the agency's capacity in the Colorado to more than 2,700, per the letter.

What they're saying: "We have no new detention centers to announce in Hudson, Colorado at this time," a DHS spokesperson said in a statement to Axios Denver.

• Secretary Noem is "willing to work with officials on both sides of the aisle to expand detention space to help ICE law enforcement carry out the largest deportation effort in American history," the statement reads.

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🚲 The merger of two Boulder bicycle stores, Full Cycle and Colorado Multisport, and their subsequent sale are in question after the owner of Colorado Multisport claimed his shop was stolen from him and sold without his permission. (Business Den 🔑)

🏥 Colorado hospitals made about $102 million on patient care in 2024, up $11 million in 2023, a new state report shows. (Denver Post 🔑)

🍏 Gov. Jared Polis wants to flip a local tax benefiting schools to cover the state's budget deficits, a move that districts say amounts to a funding cut. (Colorado Sun)

💰 A coalition of liberal groups raised $750,000 toward a study of single-payer health care with donations ranging from $5 to $100,000. (CPR)

Longmont hosted the Ice Climbing World Cup last weekend, the first time the event has been held in the U.S. since 2019.

How it works: To host the event, the Longmont Climbing Collective created a 50-foot ice wall of ice blocks from Colorado Ice Works, an Englewood company that specializes in crafting ice for sculptures, according to the Longmont Times-Call.

What we're watching: Ice climbing advocates have been clamoring for the event to be included in the 2030 Winter Olympics.