It is that time again. The time when I head up to Salt Lake City and brave freezing cold temperatures to get the all mighty Sundance Film Festival Tickets. Sundance is a movie lovers dream and while it may be true that the Festival has lost much of it's quaint charm through the years, I still love what it's all about.

This year is a special year for me because it's my tenth consecutive time attending Sundance. Needless to say, I was looking forward to hanging out in line with the old crowd that I've grown to know and love through the years (hi Rebecca, Tom, Mindy and Andy). Hell, I was even looking forward to seeing the Tower Nazi (something I'll explain another time). Yes, the Sundance line is always a great time.

This year, the plan was to leave early Friday morning and get up there as soon as possible. The tickets don't go on sale until the next morning, but there's always a huge crowd on hand who spend the night to assure they get all the tickets they want. I'm one of those people. Now security doesn't allow line-up until 6:00 P.M. but that doesn't stop people from hanging around. So I wanted to make sure I was up there early.

This time around, I decided to bring the wife and kids with me. Tonja likes movies, but she isn't the crazed fanatic I am. Still, she supports me in all my crazy little adventures, so I thought it might be fun to take her and the kids up so that they might experience the excitement waiting in a line produces.

On our drive up, a little disaster occurred about ten miles outside a little town called Beaver. My five year old daughter McKenzie (bless her heart) had a seizure, bringing our adventure to a halt. Mac (as we like to call her) has Cerebral Palsy and she has had seizures in the past but this was her first in nearly a year, so naturally we were quite distraught. Our stay in Beaver lasted nearly three hours, but in the end, Mac was fine and that was all that was important. We contemplated going back, but decided to push forth.

We arrived at Trolley Square at about 5:45 P.M. Approximately fifteen minutes before the line-up was supposed to take place. I ran over to the line-up spot and not surprisingly, there were already around fifty people there. Heading the line were all the regulars and they all greeted me with open arms but wondered what the hell took me so long to get there. The previous two years, I was first in line. I explained what happened and everyone agreed it was a really good excuse.

As fate would have it, my good friends Nate and Matt were in the top ten and they were good enough to let me in with them. I like to offer my thanks to them as well as Terra and Suzie.

It was still a tad before 6:00 and as is the case every year, a security guard with a Napolean complex came out and warned everyone that they best not line up until 6:00 or there would be consequences. For the most part, he was ignored.

Right at 6:00 P.M. the line took shape, and thanks to my good friends, I was thirteenth (yikes!) instead of sixtieth. At this point, I met up with my good friend and fearless Zboneman.com Music reviewer Kyle England. Even though he was a little farther back in line, we had all the confidence in the world that we'd all get all the tickets we wanted.

Once we had our spots in line, I ran out to my car, where Tonja and the kids were waiting patiently for the last hour or so. I forgot to mention that it was around fifteen degrees at this point, but thankfully, our vehicle has powerful heat. I jumped into the car, took the Mrs. and the little ones to a nearby Marriot, and checked into a hotel room. Given Mac's turbulent day, we didn't think it a good idea to hang out in the line in the freezing cold. Following the hotel check in and a quick bite to eat at the hotel restaurant (the food was amazing by the way) I headed back to the line.

Once again, it was a great time in line. I spent the time talking film and such with various members of the line including old friend Brent, whom I hadn't seen in quite some time. We talked a bit about a screenplay he was working on but mostly, we talked about our common fondness for the horror genre.

Each year, the line gets more ambitious. This year, there were even line members watching films on their portable DVD players. One group in particular, decided to watch The Whole Nine Yards. Why they were watching that is beyond me. It must have been for that glorious Amanda Peet sequence.

As the evening progressed, it became increasingly cold. In fact, I think it was declared the coldest evening ever for a Sundance line. It was so damned freezing that I decided not to sit down. I spent most of the time standing or walking around in fear of sticking to my chair.

Around 1:00 A.M., the good folks at Trolley Square decided to let us inside the building so we didn't have to continue freezing our asses off. Once inside, everyone began getting their movie schedules together.

Before we knew it, it was 8:00 A.M. Only one hour until ticket sale time.

The real controversy began at around 8:40 A.M. The Sundance volunteers began putting up these big schedules in the windows that would indicate which shows were sold out after tickets went on sale. To our amazement, twenty or so movies were already sold out before they even went on sale. How could this be? I approached press coordinator Patrick Hubley and he informed me that Sundance Package Holders had already gobbled up many of the tickets. This is the first time in my Sundance camping experience that any film had ever sold out before tickets even went on sale. Needless to say, many people in line were pissed off.

In a fit of complete and utter disappointment, we all began re-filling out our order sheets, as many of the films we wanted to see were sold out. This would have been fine and dandy mind you, had organizers told us the night before instead of waiting a half an hour before sale time. After going through that stress, we got yet another shock. Upon returning to the schedule posters, all the previously sold out films were suddenly…not sold out. Now at a glance this was great news, but at the same time, it was extremely aggravating because we all had to fill out our order films yet again. What madness! Apparently there was miscommunication between festival organizers and the big guys upstairs. Package Holders hadn't gobbled up all the tickets.

You might find it funny and even somewhat sad that I would even make a big deal out of something so seemingly insignificant, but I'm sure crazy movie fanatics out there can feel our pain. This is the price you pay to witness great art, and in some cases, not-so-great art. And the kicker is, I have press credentials. I didn't even need to take part in this madness! But you know what? I wouldn't have it any other way. Waiting in line is half the fun. Besides, I like to watch movies with the fans. So, as I did last year, I bought several tickets to specific screenings and I'll use the press pass for everything else.

Anyway, this was my first little Sundance 2004 adventure. The Festival runs Jan.15th-25th. On Jan. 17th, watch for our Sundance Film Festival Report #2, in which I will give insight and reviews to the films themselves.

For those of you who are curious about the Festival, log on to Sundane.org for a listing of films, events and schedules. It's a great time and if your going to be in the neighborhood, I suggest you check it out.

Watch for Report #2.