Freeze Festival took place last weekend.
By Simon Collings, Justin Feck, Giulio Gasparin and Louise Warr
The mountains came to the capital last weekend as Freeze Festival hit Clapham Common.
The skiing and snowboarding festival took place from November 27 – December 1, boasting a range of entertainment both on and off piste.
Visitors had the opportunity to witness world-class freestylers in three categories, skiing, snowboarding and ‘hail the rail’ – where riders carry out tricks on a variety of platforms.
Paul O’Connor, brand manager of Sure, one of the event sponsors, said: “We share Freeze Festival’s ambitions to showcase the best in class amongst the snow and skiing elite, uniting the thousands of fans across the country.”
There was also the opportunity to take in the winter fun fair, alpine shopping village, ski and snowboarding movies and the selection of après ski bars and food stalls.
The event also saw the world record number of people wearing Christmas jumpers at the same time, with 639 revellers donning their best festive knits.
The event, which is returning to London for the sixth time, has attracted James Webb, one of Britain’s rising freestyle skiers.
“I have been practising non-stop for it, it is not often you can bring a bit of the mountains to London,” said the 24-year-old.
With interest in skiing booming, Snowsport England is launching a campaign, ‘Go Ski Go Board’, to encourage more individuals to take up the sport ahead of the Winter Olympics in Sochi.
The CEO of the club, Frank McCusker, said: “We hope the new membership will help make skiing and snowboarding more accessible for beginner skiers and snowboarders. Recent market analysis has shown that many are put off by the perceived cost of skiing or they just aren’t very familiar with the sport.”
Tim Fawke, CEO of Snowsport England, added: “We want to make sure that no opportunity is missed to capitalise on the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics. To complement our ‘Go Ski Go Board’ campaign we are running a fun and interactive set of roadshows which will get people excited and engaged with both snow sports and with our athletes ahead of Sochi 2014.”
To find out more about the ‘Slide 2 Sochi’ roadshow and the ‘Go Ski Go Board’ initiative visit www.goskigoboard.org.uk
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