2 Feb

Miss Whis: Don’t say we didn’t warn you!

It’s that time of year again. The mild temperatures have melted some of the snow in the valley, the tree branches are tentatively poking their heads out from under their winter-long cover, and the smell of Spring is in the air. With Spring, comes sunshine, patio apres, and WSSF. The World Ski and Snowboard Festival is the flagship Whistler event, combining world-class skiing and snowboarding competitions with the largest free outdoor concert series in North America, cultural and lifestyle events to amaze and inspire, endless apres and nighttime events from sponsors Bud Light and Monster Energy, and so much more. WSSF celebrates all that is incredible about this awesome town, and draws crowds from all over the continent, giving us a chance to show the world how lucky we are to live in such a rad environment.

Since many of us have experienced a number of WSSF festivals, most of us know which events we’re planning on going to, and which nights we need to schedule off work in advance. But since there’s also over 2.1 million yearly visitors and seasonal workers, there’s a whole slew of people who are unaware that the premiere events will sell out in a matter of days, and that you need to go in with a game plan in order to come out on top at the END.

To give you all a fair warning and a heads up, the E-STORE (online ticket store; imperitive to your whole WSSF experience) opens TODAY. Yes, today. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Every year the Olympus 72hr Filmmaker Showdown is the first event to sell out, because it’s a combination of local flavour, humour, intrigue, filmmaking prowess, disasters, and time-sensitive creativity. With only 3 days to film and edit a 3-5 minute short film that is good enough to win the huge $10,000 Best in Show prize, this is not a competition for the faint of heart and uneducated. Anyone can enter, you don’t even need to register in advance, but only one team will walk away victorious. Actually, that’s not quite true. As previously mentioned, tickets to the 72hr Filmmaker Showdown are the most highly coveted tickets available, so the organisers on the festival took some advice from the desperate, tearful crowds that missed out on tickets from years past, and have added a second night to the schedule. The orginal night, Tuesday April 16, will show all 10 finalists and the Best in Show award will be presented, and then all 10 films will be re-screened on Wednesday April 17 and a People’s Choice award of $5,000 will be handed out on that evening. This gives everyone a chance to attend one of the most highly anticipated filmmaking events of Whistler’s calendar year and see two teams leave the Whistler Conference Centre and head straight to the bar, $10K and $5K richer.

Another event that sells out exasperatingly quickly is the Olympus Pro Photographer Showdown. Showcasing action sports photographers bodies of work from their lifetime collection, Pro Photo is a visually inspiring evening of spectacular photographic creativity. Whistler breeds and nurtures action and extreme sports athletes, and accomplished videographers, creative souls and forward thinkers. To cater for this proliferation of talented individuals, Intersection was created. Armed with POV cameras and 7 days, action sports teams set out to create a 5-7 minute film that embodies the snow-sports culture in Whistler. Featuring on-snow footage, terrain-park footage, and all within 100km of Whistler, this is the ultimate showdown of skiing, shredding and filmmaking talent. The teams will sweat, they will yell, they will probably cry. But they will keep their eyes on the prize of $15,000 and the bragging rights of Best in Show at Intersection 2013! If you haven’t been to this event before, you are missing out on a true assault on the senses. Get your tickets, Now!

So, don’t just sit their thinking about what you’re going to do for lunch today, who’s going to win the Superbowl this weekend (the 49ers, by the way..), or whether March madness will happen again this year (yes, it will. It ain’t over yet), get your credit card out, dust off your trigger finger, and get purchasing at www.wssf.com/estore so that you’re not that sorry soul with hands splayed, peering through the misty glass into the bustling Grand Foyer of the Whistler Conference Centre before Filmmaker, Pro Photo, Intersection, The BEGINNING, The END, The Mountain Multiplicity Show, etc. Tell your friends, tell your family, tell your neighbours, or better yet, buy a whole bunch and become the most popular person on the block come April 12.. Just don’t miss out, and don’t say we didn’t tell you!