Festival Season Enjoys Cool Start

While Europe shivered through what must be one of the coldest springs on record, the 2013 European festival season got underway in a place where the temperature didn’t really matter.

Hundreds of feet up in the Tyrolean mountains at Mayrhofen – an Austrian ski resort – a 5,000 per day sellout crowd showed up to Snowbombing, which has been staged there since 2005.

“It was -2 in The Igloo,” explained Chloe Munts from Mission PR, which handles the event’s press. The Igloo is one of the festival’s indoor venues.

Headliner Kasabian actually played an intimate outdoor show to the 450 fans that were happy to brave the elements at the top of the mountain.

Apart from taking place where a bit of snow and ice actually enhances the atmosphere, Snowbombing has traditionally embraced various aspects of Austrian culture.

This often involves oompah bands playing to sausage-eating fans wearing lederhosen.

Snowbombing, which is organized by the UK travel operator Outgoing Ltd, was voted Virtual Festivals’ best overseas festival in 2010.

This year’s line-up (April 1-6) also included Example, Katy B, Ms Dynamite, Disclosure, Carl Cox, and Simian Mobile Disco.