Jemal Countess/Getty ImagesAt the Sundance Film Festival, volunteers are wearing salmon-ish jackets from Kenneth Cole.

PARK CITY, Utah — As Sundance devotees swarmed this ski town for another orgy of indie film — required accoutrements: iPhone, messy haircut, precious-looking glasses — they encountered creatures that have been relatively scarce in recent years.

Where did all of these corporate sponsors come from?

The 2012 festival, getting under way here Thursday night, has eight new official backers: Adobe, General Electric, Sprint, Yahoo, Bertolli, Grey Goose, Time Warner and Hilton. (Honda and Trident did not return, making a net increase of six.) “We’re very fortunate,” said Keri Putnam, executive director of the Sundance Institute. “At the recession’s lowest point we did see a bit of dip in sponsorships.”

A Sundance spokesman declined to discuss specifics of how much sponsors chipped in, but did say that “most” are in the “six-figure range.” (No word on how General Electric feels about Sundance’s inclusion of “We’re Not Broke,” a feisty, Occupy-tinged documentary that looks at how giant companies, including G.E., avoid paying United States income tax.)

Sundance Film Festival

News, features and multimedia from The Times at the Sundance Film Festival, Jan. 19-29.

Companies have long lingered around the edges of the festival in hopes some cool will rub off on their brands, but there seem to be more of them this year, in a return to the frothy pre-recession days. “It’s back to the future,” said Tom Bernard, the co-president of Sony Pictures Classics and a longtime attendee. “It feels like a scene again.”

Everywhere you look there is a corporate logo, including Kenneth Cole on the salmon-ish colored jackets (heavy on the ish) worn by Sundance volunteers. Events will take place at the Skullcandy Compound, the Bertolli Meal Soup Chalet and a three-level bar taken over by Bing, the “Official Search Engine of the Sundance Film Festival.”

Other brands publicists have thrust at journalists include Ford, W Residences, T-Mobile, 7 for All Mankind jeans, Tic Tac mints, Solstice sunglasses, Patrón tequila and Ultimat vodka. As of the opening day of the festival, this reporter had received 259 unsolicited pitches from P.R. people trying to focus attention on one thing or another, on par with the 271 received by opening day last year.

“When can I call you to follow up?”

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