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The Snowbombing festival in 2023 was one of my most loved holidays to date! Skiing, belly laughter, raves, dance offs, fancy dress, karaoke, gigs in the forest, sauna, great food and the beauty of the snowy mountains. What more could you possibly want from a holiday!
The moment tickets for Snowbombing 2024 went on sale, we didn’t hesitate to secure our spot once more!
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What is Snowbombing?
Snowbombing is a week long ski festival in Mayrhofen, Austria, hosted around the first week of April each year. If you like the idea of Apres ski, street festivals, comedy acts, partying in the forest and skiing/snowboarding down the steepest run in Austria (the infamous Harakiri piste) then Snowbombing is for you!
The question really is, are you hard enough? Do you have it in you to ski by day and rave till 5am for a week?
No? Me neither! LOL
Snowbombing highlights
Ski festival: Entertainment
One thing Snowbombing is not short on, is entertainment. The itinerary is endless!
Starting at lunchtime with Apres-Ski, followed daily by some kind of snow based fun activity. These included:
- Snolympics – I mean, who doesn’t want to race down a ski slope in a rubber ring
- Chair lift speed dating
- Pond surfing – which to our surprise, is open for anyone to attempt. I am however still cringing at the accidents I witnessed, after people forget they are not invincible after a few drinks. (Of course it’s possible to board over a pond, attempt a somersault and land safely when you’re tipsy 🤕)
- Snowboard/Ski jumps and tricks – by the pros this time! Well worth watching
In the mountains you’ll have endless choices of brunches, yoga, DJ sets and piste parties to attend. Every year they have a different line up, but the variety is endless. You’ll have the Raggae shack, the colourful Retro Day, Bongo’s bingo bottomless brunch….do I need to go on?!
In the town my absolute favourite was the Fun Haus. An outdoors venue (so dress warm), but definitely the source of the holiday belly laughter. The highlight for me has to be the hilarious double act ‘The Famous first Words‘, a frantic karaoke game show!
This highlight is closely followed by having a dance off with a huge, blown up alien, within just minutes of arriving – The perfect way to start any holiday LOL!
Lets not forget the Forest Party – an outdoor stage with a great line up (This year was the iconic Glitterbox) and the Street Party (be sure to dress up!).
Followed by raves in the Racket Club. I take my hat off to the people behind the scenes here, as their sets were pretty spectacular! Take a look at @snobombingofficial and you’ll see that the majority of the night people spent filming the wonders of the stage.
If that’s still not enough, there’s the late night Bruck ‘n Stadl club that is open till the early hours, but I can’t say I made it to 6am!
The Beauty of a Ski Holiday
There have been few magical experiences in my life, when I’ve needed to hit pause and surrender to the overwhelming emotions of pure joy. I was sat in a chain lift, with my best friend, at the top of a snowy mountain in Mayrhofen, tear drops falling from my face onto perfectly formed snowflakes on my legs, in the most idyllic, silent and beautiful wonder of the world. A rare life fulfilling moment, I will never forget.
What do you need to know about Snowbombing?
This is all pretty practical, but the below covers all the things that we needed to research about Snowbombing before we booked and packed for our trip.
- Transfers take around 2 hours from Salzburg / Munich 2.5 hours/ 1 hour from Innsbruck
- Pistes up to 2500m, 57 options – suitable for all levels
- Mayfhofen have an impressive range of snow cannons in the event of poor snow conditions
- Festival tickets are only available for the entire week
- You’ll be given a wrist band for entry into all venues – Don’t loose it, as they won’t issue another
- Venues are mainly cashless, so you’ll be required to top up your wrist band with funds
- A week before Snowbombing starts, you’ll be invited to download their app and access the full itinerary, piste and venue maps
- You need to be at least a beginner at skiing/boarding to reach some of the venues
- Let your hair down and embrace dressing up! The more colourful the better!
- Hire lockers at the top of the slopes to prevent hauling your equipment around every day. (around £8 per day)
- There are plenty of places to hire equipment in the town. We went with Manni Rental as it was closest to the ski lift. I recommend pre-ordering to ensure you’ll get your sizes, due to the vast volume of rentals
- Ski passes are around 60 euros per day
- You will need to take your own ski helmet – the rentals don’t tend to have them
- Some cafes on the mountain only accept cash
- Evening venues are very casual. Ladies, ditch the heels and take trainers and hoodies (and lightweight top for the raves – it gets hot in there!)
- Boots are needed for the outdoor forest stage (although they do have wood chippings down)
- Don’t forget the sun cream. We had no visible sunshine but I still got burnt!
- Join the Snowbombing Facebook group so you can have all your questions answered
Snowbombing 2023 Review
I take my hat off to the Snowbombing organisers, they did not disappoint. I was completely broken for a few days after coming back as we just didn’t stop. There was definitely a FOMO feeling (fear of missing out) so you find yourself cramming in as much as possible! I may have been 39 years old, but I certainly wasn’t past it LOL. There’s something for everyone, whether that be laughing in a comedy club, or dressing up as a cow and skiing down a mountain 😂
Overall Score 9/10
The only reason they don’t get full marks is because as complete newbies, we struggled to find some of the events on the first couple of days and staff in the mountains weren’t able to help us. More information /sign posts to find the events would be greatly appreciated. That being said, when we asked for help on the Facebook group, we were answered immediately and it was just a case of knowing how to get from one chair lift to another to find events.
Solo Ski Holidays
If, like me you’re a singleton, but still want to experience Snowbombing, you’ll be glad to hear that there were tons of solo travellers there!
They have solo traveller booking options, but first, I highly recommend looking at the Facebook group ‘Snowbombing 2024’, which, on the lead up, will have daily offers for people to join them (over 3k members.)
Even if you’re not a solo traveller, this group is great for arranging to meet new people out there, and ask all the questions you need. So many people we met go every year and they’re all so friendly!
I will most definitely be going back to Snowbombing! (and I did… Read about Snowbombing 2024!)
Loved this rundown on adrenaline-packed adventures? Curious about how you chase that thrill in life? Don’t forget to pin these ideas for later and keep the excitement alive!
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