As we enjoy a mild and occasionally sun-kissed start to the Autumn season, the hulking relic that is Battersea Power Station - still the largest brick building in Europe - provides the venue for the biggest winter sports and music festival to ever hit these shores.
The tongue-twistingly titled 'Free Sports On 4 Freeze' begins on Thursday 23rd October, featuring a world-class line-up of the cream of the snowboarding and skiing fraternity. The Snowboarding World Cup cometh no-less, with such names as Tanner Hall, recognized as the finest free-skier on the face of the planet at just 25 years of age, his esteemed colleague Jon Olsson, who took home Big Air Gold at the Winter X Games with his signature ‘Kangaroo Flip’ (a superhuman double flat-spin 900°) and to pump up the home crowd, there’s also British number 1 snowboarder Dan Wakeham.
Within the specially constructed Alpine village, all the attention will be on the huge 30m Real Snow jump, where both the snowboarders and the notoriously brave Armada Ski Team will provide show-stopping entertainment. As you’re supping on your stein, you’ll also be able to pick up some fantastic bargains from the last ski season, all in the atmosphere of 4 days of top-class music. The main stage will feature shifters of a cool 17 million albums in Cypress Hill, Brit rockers The Automatic and The Enemy and to melt some of the ice, The Cuban Brothers. At the Relentless Blizzard Bar, you can also catch bright young things The Holloways and The Ghost Frequency, plus many more acts still to be confirmed. When the main acts disperse, Alpine DJs will help create the kind of ambiance you’d usually only find at the trendiest ski resorts.
Complementing the raucous sport and music-based entertainment, there will also be premieres from several established filmmakers, including Poor Boyz Productions 'Reasons', ‘Forum Or Against Them’ in high definition and Danny Klass and Grenade’s new film, plus the first chance to test out Olympic and eight-time Winter X Games Gold medallist Shaun White’s amazing new snowboarding game.
The Freeze is very reasonably priced considering the talent on show, so don’t forget to bring a camera for those unmissable acts of athleticism, and naturally you’ll be needing to wrap up nice and warm, because it’s called Freeze for a reason!
By Alex Tuck
Visit the Freeze website for more info and to book tickets online. That's where we got that 3D drawing too.
