Telluride Film Festival Theater Damaged by Flash Flood

The town of Telluride, Colorado, which is located at the base of the San Juan Mountain Range in the Rocky Mountains, is not unfamiliar with flash floods. But the downpour that suddenly hit the area last Friday afternoon was unusually strong and caused multiple mudslides that pummeled homes and businesses. “It was a pretty intense day,” Telluride Fire Protection District chief John Bennett tells The Hollywood Reporter.

Among the structures most impacted was the Michael D. Palm Theatre, the town’s premier performing arts venue. The 30,000 square foot, 667-seat venue, which is attached to the Telluride Intermediate School and the Telluride middle/high school buildings, is used for school plays and graduation ceremonies, professional concerts and other outside events — including, each Labor Day weekend, the Telluride Film Festival, which makes use of its surround sound system, large format digital projector and wide screen for some of its highest-profile screenings.

According to the TFPD, which shared a statement and photos on its Facebook page, an official at the Telluride Intermediate School called the TFPD on Friday evening after discovering that water had poured into the Palm through a damaged loading dock door. By the time crews arrived at the scene, somewhere between three and four feet of water and mud had accumulated in the theater, engulfing all of the ground floor seats and rising to the height of the elevated stage.

Susan Lilly, the TFPD’s public information officer, tells THR that the TFPD assessed the scene for urgent life-safety concerns, such as live electrical wires near pooled water, and then ceded it to the Telluride School District. Within hours, school district officials brought in dozens of people from Servpro, a cleanup and restoration company, who began using hoses to syphon water out of the main entrance of the Palm into the parking lot.

Is it realistic that the Palm will be habitable by the time the Telluride Film Festival kicks off on Sept. 4, less than six weeks from now? “It’s a disaster over there,” Lilly lamented — indeed, Palm Arts, a local arts organization, has begun seeking donations from the public “to help restore and rebuild this treasured gathering place.” But the school district and the film festival are working in tandem and doing everything they can to have it operational by then. In fact, the hope is that the Palm will be able to reopen two weeks before the film fest, in time for Camp Alderwild, an EDM festival that comes to town annually.

“We knew about the flood the day it happened,” Telluride Film Festival chief Julie Huntsinger tells THR. “We’ve been working super closely with the school district, and we trust their representation that things will be ready in time for the festival. We know there’s work that they will have to continue to do after the festival, but we trust that the pieces will be in place for the Palm in time for Labor Day weekend.” She added with a chuckle, “And please don’t rain again, so that we can have another great film festival!”

John Pandolfo, the superintendent of the Telluride School District, and Nicole Hattler, the managing director of Palm Arts, could not be reached for comment.