Snowbombing returns to its roots to celebrate its 20th year in bombastic style with Fatboy Slim

For its 20th year Snowbombing has arguably returned to its roots. The festival was born of a love of dance music and, after a brief dalliance with some indie stalwarts in the shape of Kasabian, The Vaccines and Liam Gallagher in recent years, it’s returned to what it knows. For the more casual fan you’ve got the household names of Fatboy Slim and Chase & Status -- both playing massive, crowd-pleasing sets -- while elsewhere the likes of Moxie, Mall Grab and Bicep keep those that know their tech house from their big beat more than happy.

Alongside a healthy staple of dance music, this year’s Snowbombing also played host to the #Merky takeover: two stages, over two days, curated by Stormzy. On night one, Kurupt FM stole the show with what, for many, will have been a festival highlight. Out the gate at 100mph, the People Just Do Nothing crew showered the packed Racket Club crowd with Champagne and ran through what was pretty much a ‘Pure Garage Vol. 1’ comedy show followed by back-to-back bangers. Their re-work of the UK Apache x Shy FX banger 'Original Nuttah' needs to be seen.

That same night also saw Mike Skinner-approved Jaykae bring his party grime to the Club to get the crowd fully hyped (so many pull ups). Closing out the night and stamping the seal of 'this is new grime, get to know' on things was Fredo who, with 'Tables Turn' and 'Funky Friday' under his belt was never going to disappoint.

Stormzy’s choice to pull out of his performance due to alleged racial profiling of his crew by site security has been written about far and wide. In resort, the general feeling on his actions was mixed; from anger at his decision to not play, to solidarity with his morally-led stance, through to conversations about how he could have made a stand about the incident from the stage and still kept paying fans happy.

If the thought of a festival with no guitars brings on a panic, don't worry, there were a few that made an appearance over the week. The first being Tom Grennan’s who, credit where it’s due, managed to win over hundreds of people who, minutes earlier, had been dancing to drum and bass. With only a stripped back acoustic set, Grannan commanded the crowd with big sing-a-long hits like ‘Found What I’ve Been Looking For’ and the Chase & Status bop ‘All Goes Wrong’. Elsewhere, a Friday night highlight came in the shape of the Antarctic Monkeys. You might think "Tribute act? Really?" but at a festival this was a stroke of genius. Pure bag-of-cans, best-of bangers, complete with mosh pit and crowd surfing. Just too much fun.

There’s a saying that you should never forget the word ‘holiday’ in ‘ski holiday’. Thankfully the word ‘festival’ hasn’t been ignored from Snowbombing either. From the pop-up sets on and off the piste (Skream playing a rave in a butcher’s shop anyone?), the street party, endless fancy dress, chairlift speed dating, rave in an igloo at 2000m, yoga on ice, Mr Motivator's warmdown, pro-rider park sessions, the infamous pond-skim and loads more you’re never at a loss for something to see or do - day or night.

Mayrhofen is a sick mountain too. For those that are more bambi-on-ice than Lindsey Vonn there's plenty of mellow slopes to fall over slowly on and blame it on a late night. For anyone a little more seasoned on snow there is of course the Harikiri (Europe's steepest slope) and a huge area to explore with views of the Austrian alps to match. Definitely blows the cobwebs away after a late night. A nice touch for Snowbombing is that for those that want to have fun on the hill but aren't into the whole skiing or snowboarding thing, they open the chair lifts and gondelas to pedestrians giving access to the main spots like Rompa's Reggae Shack and The Mountain Stage without having to risk any broken bones.

Snowbombing has picked up a ‘Glastonbury on snow’ tag which, ultimately, doesn’t do it justice. If you’re looking for a more apt comparison, ATP’s Butlins days would be a better one. With its carefully curated line-up and endless fun to be had during the daylight hours on the mountain, Snowbombing has shown why 20 years in it’s still the biggest show on snow.