Festival Backgrounder
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Every April, the TELUS World Ski & Snowboard Festival (TWSSF) takes Whistler by storm as thousands of fans witness North America’s largest annual snowsport and music celebration.
For 10 days and 10 nights, the Festival creates a unique vibe with a high-energy combination of world class ski & snowboard competitions, the largest free concert series in Canada, visual arts mega-productions, film premieres, community events and endless parties.
The Festival was created 15 years ago to increase the appeal of Whistler Resort during the then-quiet April shoulder season.
Today, the Festival has brought the month of April well into the folds of Whistler’s peak winter season, and has made Whistler by all accounts the busiest resort in the world during this month.
Growing out of the World Technical Skiing Championships on Blackcomb Mountain in 1994, the TELUS World Ski & Snowboard Festival’s first incarnation saw 22 sports events and competitions take place in Whistler including the Technical Skiing Championships, the World Masters Alpine Open, Westbeach Snowboard Classic, Air Canada Whistler Cup, Couloir Extreme Race, World Ski Instructors Festival, Industry Week, and the Lifty Olympics.
The World Technical Skiing Championships had brought together ski champions from various disciplines and attracted a large number of ski media who up until that time had never been to Whistler. It seeded the idea of developing an annual event with the potential to attract top athletes and media to the resort at a time when Whistler was beginning to emerge as an international destination.
The World Ski & Snowboard Festival was born in April, 1996. During its first two years, it underwent various transformations as it strove to fulfil a “bigger vision” but still remain an industry-focussed event. Its impact on skier visits and hotel occupancy during the 10-day period won endorsements from Whistler’s stakeholders, securing their marketing support. The Festival, held in Whistler Village and on independently owned Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains, signified the first joint event marketing initiative between the two rival mountains and the Whistler Resort Association (now Whistler/Blackcomb and Tourism Whistler).
The third year (1998) was a breakthrough year for the Festival. A free outdoor concert series, an action-sport photography showdown and various community events were added to the athletic event line-up providing a broader range of content and widening the appeal beyond the industry to the general public. A major increase in resort visits and several Whistler businesses setting all-time records during the 10-day event in 1998 firmly established the Festival as a Whistler icon celebrating the end of the season.
Today, the TELUS World Ski & Snowboard Festival continues to grow and evolve around three major pillars of content: music, arts and sports. Not a single event from its inaugural year remains today, illustrating the Festival’s responsiveness to the changes in the snowsport and resort industry. It has evolved from a specialised sporting event into the foremost lifestyle event in Canada.
The Festival’s concert series has also grown to become the largest free outdoor concert series in the country. More than 50 concerts are staged in Whistler over ten days, contributing to the high-energy atmosphere that flows through pedestrian walkways and nightclubs of the resort.
Ironically given its foundations, the Festival’s signature events have become the fashion, film and photo trifecta. These unique visual arts productions are now recognized as the most prestigious events of their kind in the world. The Pro Photographer Showdown invites the best action-sport and lifestyle photographers in the world to show the greatest work of their careers in choreographed mega-productions for an audience of 2000. Following in its footsteps is the acclaimed Filmmaker Showdown, inviting teams and individuals to shoot edit and produce short films in just 72 hours in Whistler during the Festival. The best films are screened for 2000 people at a gala evening. In 2006, organizers unveiled a new dimension to the Festival, Fashion Exposed, a major production for the innovators of the action-sport and lifestyle apparel industry, which completely transforms the runway and demonstrates the way in which fashion has become completely integrated street and snow culture. Street art exhibits, theatre, storytelling, and collectively-scribed and illustrated novels round out the cultural showcase.
Never losing sight of its roots, the foundation of professional athletic competition remains at the heart of the Festival. In 2006, the pro skiers and riders decided to join forces to compete in the same venues for the first time. Also new for 2006 was the inclusion of the World Backcountry Freeride Jam, a multi-disciplined celebration of the new backcountry skiing movement.
An Economic Impact Assessment conducted during the 2006 event found that the Festival had more than met its founding goal. In just over a decade, the event’s significance in the local and provincial economy had the quantifiable impact of generating $37.7 million in economic activity for the province, with visitor spending and operational expenditure injecting more that $15.7 million into the Whistler economy. Over 28,000 hotel room nights were sold during the Festival, with 86% being directly driven by the Festival.
In 2007, a record 275,000 visitors took part in the Festival, enjoying sold-out shows, 2 Big Airs, and the annual gathering of the mountain tribes.
In 2007, the Festival played host to the If Ullr Was a Girl contest, a showcase of the best women skiers and riders, and TWSSF continued to support girlpower with the Ullrgirl redux in 2008. In addition, in 2008 the Orage Masters event was resurrected after a one year hiatus, bringing its anti-comp, industry cred to the Festival for a team-based free-for-all approach to slopestyle contests.
An industry think-tank, the PowWow was hosted, and the Second Cuts screening of filmmaker showdown films added to the program. Innovation continued on the hill with a brand new Big Air jump constructed, under the oversight of master park-builder and designer of the 2010 Olympic Half-Pipe, Steve Petrie. $150,000 in total prize money was awarded to the athletes, and the Outdoor Concert Series Main Stage headlined De La Soul, Lil’Jaz, The John Butler Trio, Blackalicious, The Trews, Ill Scarlett, Daniel Wesley, Julian Marley and Michael Franti & Spearhead.
In 2009, as the snowsports industry celebrated the 30th anniversary of Westbeach and the 10th anniversary of twintip skis, and automakers, tech companies and Olympic developers begged for financial bailouts, the TELUS World Ski and Snowboard Festival initiated State of the Art, the Park n Fly Skate Jam, the ThreePointOh Multimedia Challenge and welcomed the Grenade Games to Whistler.
Now in its fifteenth year, the TELUS World Ski & Snowboard Festival continues to grow in scope and popularity with thousands of attendees and an international television audience in 122 countries. Offering more than $120,000 in cash and prizing to the grassroots practitioners of new school skiing, snowboarding, film-making, action photography, new media, visual arts and design, the Festival follows hard on the heels of the XXIst Winter Olympic Games and Paralympic Games to celebrate those who don’t just excel on the field of play, but transform it.
The community is of one voice when it comes to pointing to something that defines Whistler – the TELUS World Ski & Snowboard Festival is voted Whistler’s “Event of the Year” every year. It is the perfect showcase of the resort’s diverse personality and energy.
The snowsport season isn’t over until you’ve been to the TELUS World Ski & Snowboard Festival.
For more information, visit wssf.com
