Festivals of white... the best music on the slopes this season
GREETINGS from Grenoble, a city of students, scientists, street art and most importantly. gateway to 23 ski resorts in the Isère region of France.
I’ve spent the last few days exploring one of Isère’s bestknown resorts, Alpe d’Huez, which is preparing to stage the first ever winter edition of Tomorrowland, a popular music festival which is expected to attract up to 30,000 electro fans between March 9 and 16.
This season’s festival is already sold out so think about planning early if you want to attend it next year. The resort plans on holding the festival for another five years.
In the meantime, here’s my quick guide to some of the best festivals in the Alps.
Verbier’s Polaris festival takes place at the start of December each year and draws big names like Massive Attack. There’s plenty of time to start planning a Polaris trip in December 2019.
One of the most famous music festivals in the Alps – Snowbombing in the Austrian resort of Mayrhofen – celebrates its 20th anniversary this season. The Prodigy and Fat Boy Slim are just two of the big names in a big line-up between April 8 and 13.
The Altitude Comedy festival – a must-visit for comedy and ski fans – returns to Mayrhofen at the start of April with an impressive line-up that includes John Bishop, Jimmy Carr, Eddie Izzard and Irish comedian Andrew Maxwell.
Having been to the festival, I can highly recommend it as the perfect way to spend your ski holiday evenings.
Zermatt Unplugged takes place between April 9 and 13 with lots of acoustic sets and Boy George headlining with Culture Club.
Chamonix is also on the electro music trail between April 2 and 7 with the Unlimited festival while
Ischgl will finish its season in fine style with Lenny Kravitz in concert.
Between January and March, Italy’s Trentino region – home to some of my favourite Italian ski resorts - will host the Ice Festival, a series of concerts in theatres made of snow using instruments made of ice. Sounds like intriguing fun to me! I can’t talk about fun without mentioning St Patrick’s Day in Söll, a Ski Welt favourite with Irish skiers.
Söll celebrates St Paddy’s Day with green floodlighting for night skiing and has even been known to stage a parade.
If you can’t manage a festival in the Alps but want great après on your ski holiday, check out La Folie Douce in French resorts like Val d’Isere, Avoriaz and Alpe d’Huez.
Many skiers in their 20s and 30s specifically book resorts that have a Folie on the slopes.
Snowboxx, which takes place in France’s Portes du Soleil area between March 23-30, is another big event in the Alpine calendar with Craig David among the headline acts.
Just a week earlier (March 17-23) the vast Portes du Soleil area, which has over 400km of pistes between France and Switzerland, will also host the Rock the Pistes music festival.
If jazz is more your style, Bad Hof Gastein in Austria hosts Snow Jazz between March 8-17 with a large line-up of international jazz acts.
And finally, in the high altitude French resort of Tignes, March 1623 is Gay Week with lots of parties and music going on.
Take my word for it; festivals aren’t just for summer. Get planning, get booking and look forward to lots of fun on the slopes this season and next.