Travel
Party In The Snow: 10 Mountaintop Music Festivals
The ski slopes are only half the fun at these high-altitude music and art festivals around the world
Is the ‘après’ part of your ski holiday as important as what happens on the slopes? Or would you generally prefer to have fun in the snow without strapping one or two boards to your feet? These mountain towns and ski resorts offer entertainment to complement – or substitute – the athletic aspect of your winter break.
Rave on Snow
Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria
Rave on Snow is all about the numbers: more than 80 electronic music acts play in 12 locations at a ski resort offering 270 kilometres of slopes. With a 31-year history, the festival is a reliable favourite for European ravers who enjoy hitting the slopes as much as they look forward to hitting the dance floor. The famous Schattberg run connects the peak party and the main open-air stage, so you can ski/board from one to the other.
Ski Week
Obertauern, Austria
Elsewhere in Austria, revellers keep it small and intimate with this boutique mountain festival. The all-inclusive event offers day- and nighttime activities ranging from guided snowshoe hikes and outdoor yoga to an igloo sleepover and a mountain banquet set in the snow. Revellers are put up in comfy apartments, usually shared by a group of friends. A current offshoot in the USA and previous editions in Canada and Japan have taken the concept abroad.
Verve
Andermatt, Switzerland
This techno festival takes over the recently redeveloped resort town near the Gotthard pass for the third time in a row this winter. The boutique event grew out of a festival in nearby Lucerne before ascending to 1,447 metres. One outdoor and one indoor stage are set up a stone’s throw from the small town in the midst of the Swiss mountains, meaning visitors can walk, slip or slide back to their hotels at the end of the night. Accommodation options range from the five-star Chedi Andermatt and the Radisson Blu, which hosts the afterparty, to small guest houses and apartments.
Tomorrowland Winter
Alpe d’Huez, France
The winter spinoff of the global Tomorrowland series of electronic dance music festivals returns to the French Alps in 2025. Like the original event in Belgium, it routinely hosts some of the biggest electronic artists in the world, on spectacular stages designed with a fantasy theme and equipped with special effects, both on the resort’s mountaintops and a covered, heated main stage. After having the misfortune of launching in 2019 and skipping two editions due to the pandemic, the festival is now preparing for its fourth winter lineup in a row.
Snowbombing
Mayrhofen, Austria
This mountain music festival, aimed squarely at Brits holidaying in Austria, is held at the tail end of the season – so there’s still enough snow to enjoy the slopes, yet temperatures are high enough to party outdoors without suffering hypothermia. Instead of one massive stage, acts perform in a variety of unique locations, including forest, mountain and igloo stages.
Snow Machine
Hakuba and Niseko, Japan
Snow Machine is a music festival geared towards international visitors, especially from Australia, with an equally Western-leaning lineup. In addition to après stages on the mountains, at the base stations or en-piste, there’s a main arena for live music and DJ sets at night, as well as after parties in the local clubs. This year, a second location was added, with both festival sites hosting the same artists back-to-back. In addition, the Japanese festival has proven so popular Down Under that a spinoff event in Queenstown, New Zealand was launched in 2022.
[Image credit: Pat Stevenson]
Skifasching
Oberwiesenthal, Germany
Think of German Carnival, and you’ll probably come up with images of the costumed street parades in Cologne and Düsseldorf, but there are other regional traditions, for example the so-called Skifasching, celebrated in some mountain villages in Bavaria, the Black Forest or eastern Germany. In Oberwiesenthal, near the Czech border, costumed locals and visitors take to the slopes – often on home-built, elaborately decorated sledges.
Afriski Winterfest
Maluti Mountains, Lesotho
The Kingdom of Lesotho is also known as the Mountain Kingdom – and for good reason. The landlocked sovereign enclave within South Africa lies entirely above 1,000 metres, the highest lowest point of any country in the world. Afriski, the country’s only ski resort, makes the most of what little snow it gets, at 3,222 metres above sea level. The winter sports infrastructure is modest, but what the resort lacks in challenging slopes, it makes up for with a season of snowed-in events. In June, the Holimo Wine, Gin and Jazz Festival attracts a gourmet crowd, while Winterfest brings a party atmosphere to the mountain in August.
Winter Pride
Queenstown, New Zealand
New Zealand is probably the best antipodean ski destination – and Queenstown is definitely the best place to party in the snow. Since Pride month falls in the snow season in the Southern Hemisphere, why not celebrate diversity and hit the slopes at the same time? Billed as “a festival in a small town with a bold heart”, Winter Pride offers everything from concerts and parties – on the slopes and in the clubs – to drag shows and a seated banquet lunch with wine tasting.
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Dark Mofo
Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Mona Foma, the Museum of Old and New Art: Festival of Music and Art, held its final edition in April 2024. The eclectic event, which had been a highlight on the Australian arts calendar for more than a decade, will be mourned by many. Luckily, its winter spinoff, Dark MOFO, will be back for one more edition in 2025. Hosted by Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art, it will once again feature a lineup of music, art, light installations, food trucks and the famous nude solstice swim. Though not exactly a ski-friendly festival, it’s a winter event worth travelling for – especially since this is your very last chance to do so.
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