Day 1, continued

We took a cab to Main Street with a glamorous LA girl who was going to get her nails done. She lamented that "I decided to take cabs this year instead of getting a car and driver like I have in the past. It was always just so many thousands of dollars when I got the bill...I would forget that it was $150/hour, even when you just had the driver sitting and waiting for hours." Wow, tough life.

We arrived on Main Street and picked up our tickets. Park City was very quiet. Instead of the usual festive activity, we saw people setting up the party tents and arranging interview areas. This is the first time we have been there on opening night, and it was a much different vibe. There were no celebrities around, but we did get to eat at a great bistro that usually has lines out the door.

We went to the opening night movie (2nd showing) of Mary and Max, the claymation movie with voices by Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Toni Collette. The filmmakers were there and spoke before the movie, but Phillip Seymour and Toni did not show up. We thought they had probably been there for the earlier showing, but we found out they were not at that one either. It turns out that the filmmakers were the real stars anyway, because the stop-action claymation and story were incredible. We'll do a separate posting where we review the movies. As someone was leaving the theater, he aptly commented, "If the festival ended right now, I would be happy." We were in complete agreement with that sentiment.

We then decided to take the shuttle to the Opening Night Gala at Legacy Lodge, even though we had not been able to score tickets beforehand. Since it was already midnight, we thought we might be able to finagle our way into the party. As luck would have it, we were walking in right behind some crew members from Max and Mary. They saw that there was a line to go into the party and decided to bail. As they were walking out, I asked if we could have there tickets and they said "Sure!" So we got into the opening party!

Since it was so late, we did not see any celebrities at the party, but there was good food, drink, and of course amazing people-watching opportunities. As I always imagined, if you can get into these parties, you get to sample great things like baklava-flavored ice cream.

Check out the video below that Kristine took from the balcony of the party:

As a quick aside, I encourage everyone to go out and immediately purchase a box of Carr's Ginger Lemon Cremes. There were some included in our basket from the Ryneska family, and they are my new favorite cookie. Cindy P., I know you like those Newman ginger cookies, but imagine the same thing but 10 times better!