This year, my husband and I decided to take in a couple of the Telus World Ski & Snowboard Festival’s 10 days of activities. The festival offers skiers, boarders, music, fashion and art lovers a chance to enjoy it all under one (make that two) mountains.

We had to choose the “best couple of days” to head up to the festival, but it was hard to decide, given the amount of concerts and other goings-on in the Village. I’d heard and read a lot about WSSF and wanted to carve out our own itinerary that would take in as much off-piste activity as possible over the course of two days.

group photos

Ultimately, Easter weekend won out and we drove up Friday morning, arriving at our hotel in time to check in and head to the Village for afternoon fun. The Mascot Mayhem event was kicking off as we entered the Village Square. We didn’t know about Pemberton Potato Jack or Big Air Bear’s existence until now (the latter celebrating his or her 8th birthday, a good reason for the huge cake that was being served to the crowd). Guess we learned something new that day.

mascots

A lot of sponsor tents were based along the Village Stroll, and with a festival of this size, I can only imagine the cost involved in getting it under way each year. Over at the AXE Stage, both Dinosaur Bones and Broken Social Scene drew a huge après crowd. The stage was situated at Skier’s Plaza, where skiers literally hung up their skis or boards a matter of steps away. Everything was easy to access during the festival, concentrated at either end of Whistler Village. Our hotel was also conveniently located to take full advantage of WSSF (post to follow).

group photos AXE Stage, Skiers Plaza

Dinosaur Bones
[Dinosaur Bones]

Dinosaur Bones
[Dinosaur Bones]

Broken Social Scene
[Broken Social Scene]

Broken Social Scene
[Broken Social Scene]

Broken Social Scene
[Broken Social Scene]

AXE Stage

Later that afternoon, we were invited to a reception for the Whistler Blackcomb mobile app launch at Garibaldi Lift Company. I downloaded the app onto my iPhone during the event and am still playing around with some of its cool features, including GPS and social media sharing.

After a sumptuous supper at the Bearfoot Bistro, we headed straight to Whistler Convention Centre for VAIO Fashion Exposed, a popular draw at WSSF.

VAIO Fashion Exposed-3
[Paintertainment models Jenna McBain in blue and Kelly Hitchcock in green]

Ski and street wear fashion by Sitka, Westbeach, EMU, Voleurz, OBEY, Bench, LSpace, Frederick’s of Hollywood and Gentle Fawn were all represented here, as worn by the pretty girls and boys taking turns striking a pose on stage. The VAIO ladies were painted by Paintertainment artists Cary and Paulo Lopes.

VAIO Fashion Exposed-64 VAIO Fashion Exposed-48 VAIO Fashion Exposed-28 VAIO Fashion Exposed-37 VAIO Fashion Exposed-34 VAIO Fashion Exposed-42 VAIO Fashion Exposed-8 VAIO Fashion Exposed-4

I was excited to see that my newly-minted fave Vancouver band, Bend Sinister, was going to perform during the fashion show! These guys kicked out a great set at Vancouver 125’s birthday party earlier this month at Jack Poole Plaza and are headed to Live at Squamish this August. I loved watching the band’s faces as the models walked past.

VAIO Fashion Exposed-39 VAIO Fashion Exposed-11 VAIO Fashion Exposed-38 VAIO Fashion Exposed-55

State of the Art, a group art show that ended on Saturday the 22nd, was on display inside the Convention Centre’s Grand Foyer. We caught it just in time after the fashion show. On Saturday while on my way to the Chevy on Scene tweetup, I glimpsed inside as the show was being taken down, and took a few last-minute daylight shots.

State of the Art images State of the Art

Chevy was both in the Village and at the Convention Centre, where visitors were given a chance to test drive a number of current models. My eyes were immediately led to a Camaro 2SS convertible, and one of the Chevy reps was happy to give me a quick drive around Whistler for the 312 horsepower + V6 engine experience. Although I could have legally driven the car alone, I was happy to sit back, relax, and feel the wind in my hair on that glorious sunny day.

Chevy Camaro

Although we didn’t stay for the Big Air finals nor The END after party events that evening, we got two full days’ worth of fun and look forward to what WSSF has in store for us next year!

2 Comments

  • Comment by Sheryll — April 26, 2011 @ 3:14 pm

    Wow, so much to take in on a short visit. We were up there too and stayed for the Big Air and more skiing!!!

  • Comment by Bob R. — April 26, 2011 @ 3:15 pm

    Also a Broken Social Scene fan. They put on a great show. Would have liked to have seen Bend Sinister but we didn’t get tickets in time 🙁

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.