Man Arrested After Racially Charged Incident at CAA’s Annual Sundance Party at High West Saloon
An unidentified man was arrested Saturday at the CAA Sundance party at Park City’s High West Saloon, according to multiple media reports.
The person in question was not on the guest list and did not attend the party as a guest of an invited attendee, and is believed to have snuck in through an alternate entrance.
On Saturday Congressman Maxwell Alejandro Frost identified himself as the victim of the attack. “Last night, I was assaulted by a man at Sundance Festival who told me that Trump was going to deport me before he punched me in the face. He was heard screaming racist remarks as he drunkenly ran off. The individual was arrested and I am okay,” Frost wrote on X. “Thank you to the venue security and Park City PD for assistance on this incident.”
The man reportedly told other attendees he’s proud to be “white” and before punching Frost in the face, Variety and THR reported, citing people familiar with the incident.
CAA’s party is an annual event during the festival’s first weekend. The agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday.
The suspect went to the restroom around midnight just before instigating the fracas. He was arrested by Park City Police and remained behind bars Saturday; police only confirmed that a man was arrested and in custody.
It’s believed the majority of guests at the event had no knowledge of what transpired, or that police were present at the scene. High West is a sprawling venue on the Park City festival’s main strip, with multiple levels that include a distillery, restaurant and event rooms.
This year’s film festival began in Utah on January 22. It is the final event in Park City and the first without founder Robert Redford, who died in September.
“When Bob founded this festival decades ago, he didn’t just create a venue for film; he created a sanctuary for the ‘wild, the weird, and the wonderful.’ He believed that our rugged landscapes were the perfect backdrop for unbridled creativity,” Utah governor Spencer Cox wrote in a welcome letter to attendees. “Because of his vision, Utah became the epicenter of independent cinema, and the world became a richer place through the stories told here.”
Beginning next year, the Sundance Film Festival will take place in Boulder, Colorado, a change Cox also noted. “While this marks our final year hosting the festival in Utah, the impact of the Redford era is permanent,” he wrote. “His legacy is etched into our canyons and woven into the fabric of our culture. We are immensely proud to have been the home of Sundance Film Festival for so long, and we are honored to share this closing frame with you.”
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