Snowbombing in Canada — We Did It Big — Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous Ravers
This weekend I was graciously given the opportunity to attend the first ever Coors Light Snowbombing Festival held within the beautiful borders of Canada. Being such a Festival Addict and with an all emcompassing international lineup ranging from the all time famous move star & rapper Ludacris, to widely popular EDM DJs like Kaskade and Getter to the legendary classic DJs that really made us old ravers unable to miss, like the OMFG super incredible Netsky, AC Slater, Oliver Heldens, Duke Dumont and Pete Tong. The level of Canadian performers was also beyond what was expected with Skiitour, Peep This, Smalltown DJs, SIVZ, Sara Sukkha & Mat The Alien absolutely killing it to name a few.
Snowbombing has been doing things different around the world for nearly 20 years (Since 1999) now and is considered “the greatest show on snow.” Even though they have been doing this for a number of years around Europe with great success, this was the first time that they made the trek to Canada and they were sure not to disappoint.
Snowbombing as situated on the beautiful Sun Peaks Resort just located nearly an hour outside of Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada. They literally could not have picked a better town to take over. Sun Peaks is the definition of a mountain resort town. With streets made of snow and the cutest little shops selling meals, ski clothes & coffee (but not sneakers) combined with the friendliest attitudes I have ever seen anywhere, it is a location made for festival culture.
Not only was it a good flow for festival culture but they expected many of the issues that might have occurred and took the proper steps to ensure everybody’s safety. There was an enormous about of police and security guards at the location which seemed a little excessive at times but when things go sideways, as they sometimes do at events like this, we could rest assured that the troublemakers were dealt with.
One example is at 3:30am, one festival goer was reported to have kicked down his door and pulled the fire alarm. Needless to say, he was quickly arrested. Another (new) friend of ours was thrown in the drunk tank because when the police asked him to pour out his beer, he misunderstood and tried to pour it down his throat.
The mountain itself was far beyond majestic and looked like something out of a beer commercial. Maybe this is why, Coors Light sponsored the entire event. I am sure they got enough footage there for a number of commercials and actually now that I think of it, I actually seen a Coors Light Commercial last night with the word “SNOWBOMBING” in lights flashed across my TV screen. I wonder if this is possibly the reason that a lot of us were so easily persuaded to go.
Speaking of commercials, Ludacris. We were pretty excited to see Ludacris as we were old fans of his actual music and were very excited to hear some of the classics. I even had “Get Back” blasting in my headphones as I was shredding down the mountain but when I got to the actual performance, I did not hear much of the classics I was to expect. To be fair though, I didn’t stay very long for this one. Within the first 25 % of the performance, Ludacris plugged his various movies about 7 different times and the entire performance seemed more like a very long ad for whatever the next Fast & Furious movie is coming out.
We quickly remembered that we were ravers and not rappers or movie-goers.
Just in time though because The Underground was opening up. Now THIS was the place to be. Picture a 1990s underground parking lot rave with new age massive digital soundsystem, lasers and glowing seated areas and glowing tables off to the side. It also had padded leather reclining benches for those cuddle puddlers in all of us. It was utter perfection.
The accommodations were unlike anything I have ever experienced at a music festival. Never before, could you pop into your digs between stages and make a plate of spaghetti, grab a shower and throw your favourite onesie & socks in the dryer before heading off to the next stage. Better than that, our room had 2 separate washrooms and even modern luxuries like a stove, fridge & dishwasher.
The other thing is, you really didn’t NEED to know how to ski or snowboard, even though it does add another level of fun and excitement to the trip, you could have easily gotten by without that skill. I kind of wish I knew that before spending my entire winter collecting new snowboard gear and dumping thousands into lessons & lift passes to hopefully get me to a level where I didn’t make a fool of myself. By the way, I should have realized that was inevitable.
Speaking of making a fool of myself, I made sure to start early. As soon as we rolled up on Thursday afternoon, I made sure to throw on a unicorn onesie/bathrobe and went out looking for the festival people. I quickly found the party at the Coors Light pop-up stage where the mystery guest was about to play, who was non-other than the legendary Oliver Heldens. Unfortunately for us dance loving ravers, the dance area was fenced and quite crammed so we hot some quick pictures and went back to the Mesa stage where we jammed out to the incredible funky house vibes of Sivz. ❤ Check out the video of us jamming out to her getting the party started!
Sivzs really blew me away. Partially because of her on-point track selection & mixing skills but also because I was not expecting her. I had my list of must see artists, which definitely did not disappoint but NOTHING is better than being surprised by an artist you have never heard before or a new friend and Snowbombing was filled with BOTH. It really was the best time for meeting new friends and discovering new music. Another “discovery” of mine was Sara Sukkha who was rocking some jamming house beats one evening in Mesa and I had the entire dancefloor to myself, which believe it or not, is my favorite kind of dancefloor. This is probabally why I enjoy festivals so much, because its not that hard for me to take over 100 square feet to go wild in.
Duke Dumont also played an incredible set at the Forest Stage on Sunday evening. Traditionally, I am not a huge lover of the house music but I have decided to stay for him after Netsky on recommendation from my friend Jay who was not able to make it due to how he now lives on Prince Edward Island. All I have to say is, thank you Jay. The tracks that Duke Dumont was laying down, made me RUN from the vendors, back up to the front of the stage next to the speakers and GIVER dancing! I had such a great time dancing and even the Pokemon showed up and had a little dance with us! OMFG was it ever fun! Check out this crowd!!
Its crazy that all of my best times up until this point were both House Music DJs but don’t worry, you junglists, (if there is even any left) I was able to find some hard as nails Jungle 4 different times, which is WAAAAY more than I was expecting. The first one was actually by some of the CLSBDJs (Coors Light Snow Bombing DJs) which was unfortunate because I really would have liked to know who it was. I feel like they were robbed from any kind of appreciation by listing them on the App & Schedule without their proper DJ name. They of course played in the Underground, which was perfect for some filthy jungle.
Netsky also played some jungle classics along with his huge hits in the Forest on Saturday night at 7pm. This whole experience was unbelieveable, being able to dance around with all of the costumed characters in the forest mud with the mountains surrounding you to your favorite music. Nothing compares. To see a video clip of the start of this set, check it out here:
Sunday night closed off with Peep This and then Smalltown DJs playing some killer EDM/Electro/Hardstyle and then Mat The Alien & Netsky playing an assortment of Dubstep, Trap, Drum n Bass & Jungle! Netsky finished off the night at 3 AM by playing “one more track” 5 times with assorted classic hip hop, mixed with jungle. It was a night to remember. Good thing I was sober for this one.
The festival itself had 11 “stages” where music was being played at all different times. The day music scene was much different from the night but this seemed to keep it interesting. The oldschool raver in me was kind of disappointed to hear that music was over at about 3am each night but this made it much much easier to get up and go snowboarding / dancing again in the morning / early afternoon.
There was 2 stages up on the mountain that you needed to get a chairlift to and one of them you actually needed to snowboard down to, which was quite exciting. Just givin’ er snowboarding between the trees and then all of a sudden hearing some G-House coming from a small stage with picnic tables. Stop in for a quick dance and then keep going. It really made the day time sun shine some of the best I have ever experienced.
The other stage most worth mentioning was the Crystal Cave. We avoided this for the first few days because there was usually a long line up and from outside it appeared like it was only a medium sized white rave tent. The kind of tent you see at many festivals as a renegade stage or even 2nd or 3rd biggest stage at the festival. When we finally did decided to pop in, it was for Getter and OH MY GOD, we were BLOWN AWAY.
Sure we had to wait in line and get through security and then we got into the white tent. Little did we know, the white tent was only a lounge area for people to cool off and chill on those multi coloured cubes & seating like in the underground. To the right of this was gigantic doors leading into a dark red carpeted hallway and other huge doors leading to the biggest ballroom I have ever seen with literally thousands of people with their arms in the air having the time of their life.
Maybe it was just the type of people who are fans of Getter and enjoy mosh pits to the hardest dubstep mixed with the most obnoxiously hard hardstyle but this crowd was intense to say the least. There was so many “bros” crammed in one room that people genuinely seemed terrified for their safety.
This was all quite overwhelming but by the time we got our heads wrapped around what was happening, we were back in the much cooler (temperature wise) seating area with the bar and like 5 of us dancing around. Much more our speed. We did go back into the ballroom one more time before leaving and were at the very back just absorbing the magnitude of the beauty all around us.
Overall, I would have to say that the festival was quite successful not only monetarily but by ensuring that every single person there has a great time. From the people who enjoyed sitting in Morriseys Pub to the families on Ski Trips to the old Jaded ravers, there was literally something there for EVERYONE.
Going to an alcohol sponsored music festival completely sober definitely had its ups and downs but overall I had a great time. I did meet 2 other people who were completely sober throughout it, which is 2 more than I find at most festivals. Even this, really goes to show me that more and more people are able to grasp this concept and over the years, I am sure we will grow in numbers. You really can still go to music festivals and underground raves and have the best time ever completely sober. Ask anybody, I killed most of the dancefloors and many times, was happier than everybody there and not once did I crave one drink. I did get a little down one night because being sober nobody else could keep up with me, needing to go get a drink or whatever else, taking breaks but I am sure that in time, more people will attend these events clean and sober, we will do it together and have the best time ever.
For those of you who try this sober and get yourself in the funk like I did, I want to share what I did to get out of it. I made use of the tips in my books and I made a change, left the crew I was with and watched a movie to take my mind off of it, which didn’t work but then I had a nap and woke up fresh, starting over with a positive mindset.
I hope to see you all next year as I will definitely be there again, even just for the underground parking lot.
I wish you all the very best!
-Stanley Arthur
As for what I am up to next, I still have the contest on to win 500$ or Shambhala Tickets and my first book is coming out on May 5. The book is titled “How To Quit Drugs” and I am in the process of collecting email addresses at www.festivaladdict.me for people who agree to download it the first few days and then review it on Amazon so that Amazon will push it for us and we will be able to help out as many struggling addicts as possible.
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