Live Report: Snowbombing 2016 – Mayrhofen, Austria

Crisp moutain air and crisp musical treats...

There are some combinations in life that work well, and some that don’t. Take Guinness brown sauce – comprised of two wonderful inventions, but merged together? It’s just a fail… tastes like you slopped a pint all over your full English. A skiing holiday combined with a music festival though? Much better result – the crisp mountain air has a rejuvenative effect that deals with even the most vicious hangovers. So you can ski or snowboard all day long, go just as hard at night, wake up and repeat.

Snowbombing is the best possible example of this savvy alliance. What started life as a club night in a remote resort in the French Alps, this April celebrated it’s 17th event in the spectacular surroundings of the Mayrhofen ski resort in Austria.

Entertainment agency Broadwick Live, who also bring us Festival No.6, has gone from strength to strength over the years in making Snowbombing the biggest festival of it’s kind in Europe, if not the world. Take a generous selection of enjoyable activities, such as a road trip, pool party, street rave, disco in a giant igloo and an open air concert in a forest – and match them with a world class ski resort offering a wide range of pistes and a lengthy line up of emerging and legendary dance music acts. The end result requires an extraordinary amount of stamina, but what a week to have.

For many, the festival begins with a freewheelin’ road trip to arrive in Mayrhofen, taking in four countries in two days. “Do you yearn for the open road and long to be part of a lawless gang of miscreants with one sole purpose of fun on their minds? Do you dream of blue skies and long motorways… are you happy to live off paprika crisps and service station Haribo for three days straight!?” That summation from the organisers accurately describes how some revellers like to kick off Snowbombing. My long suffering liver was not up for the full hit though and I joined for the final three days. Any lethargy from the two-hour flight was effectively washed away at the party in the Erlesnesbad adventure swimming pool, with the likes of DJ Barely Legal, Anna Wall and Barry Peters soundtracking the early evening start.

Mayrhofen town centre is as pretty as it is packed with bars, clubs and restaurants, so any night of the week is going to be a late one. Some of the unmissable places include The Racket Club – a massive old tennis centre with a huge dance floor, Han’s the Butchers – not your average butchers, local character Hans serves up a mighty fleishkase, which is spam-like hot dog meat in the shape of a slice of bread and served in bread with Austrian mustard… sounds rank, but is actually moorish. Then there’s the Strass Lobby bar – which offers a lively pub atmosphere and a few pissed-up celebrities, and the Strass Bar & Grill, much loved for serving decent meals late into the night and features an interior design based on musicians who have played there, meaning Bonnie Tyler shares wall space with The Four Tops and The Prodigy.

Bonnie and the Tops couldn’t attend this year, but The Prodigy delivered a blistering set in the open air Forest stage. Idris Elba, who had already played a couple of lively sets of his own over the week, was seen bouncing around in the VIP section in his ski coat and sunglasses. The giant pine trees surrounding the audience were lit up by a pyrotechnic stage show and branches trembled with the pounding retrospective blasted out by the band. Bastille also headlined the forest stage and had the entire the masses bouncing to ‘Pompeii’ and more.

Swapping the spectacular setting in the shadows of the trees for the snow-capped heights of Mount Ahorn, one of the most memorable places to party is at the Arctic Disco. Places are tight as just 400 people travel up 2000 metres to the plateau of the mountain to find an enormous igloo… enter and head down the corridor to find side chamber rooms decked out with soft furs, and then into the main room with sculptures on the walls, a proper bar and, of course, a dance floor and DJ booth. You would imagine it would be cold in an igloo but when a few hundred people are lapping up a set from Fatboy Slim, it’s cooking. Talking about the festival Norman says, “Snowbombing is the stupidest ski holiday you ever went on. It's peoples' capacity to go out all night and party and then still get up and go skiing the next day. It never ceases to amaze me”.

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Words: Nick Rice
Photography: Danny North, Giles Smith, Andrew Whitton (as credited)

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