Vienna — World News, Travel and Social Action

With massive, man made indoor ski resorts, skiing is no longer a winter-only sport.

In 1927, Vienna, Austria opened up the first indoor ski slope called Schneepalast. The slope was 65.6 feet tall, and the building was eventually destroyed, but the idea has stayed around. People have improved on it by creating larger and larger indoor ski slopes for people to enjoy not just during the normal skiing season, but also in warm temperatures where and when snow doesn’t fall. Indoor ski resorts are all over the world, with at least one on every continent. Ski Dubai in Dubai, United Arab Emirates was voted the best indoor resort back in 2016 and 2017, and it used to be the biggest, though Harbin Wanda Indoor Resort in Harbin, China surpassed Ski Dubai in 2017. Wintastar Shanghai in Shanghai, China is currently on track to being the largest once it is completed in 2022. There are also indoor slopes that are meant only for practice in the summer. These are training centers for athletes, without man-made snow and more akin to treadmills.

Though an indoor resort will likely never be as large as an outdoor one, Ski Dubai is one of the largest indoor ski resorts in the world. It is the first indoor ski resort in the Middle East, featuring a chairlift, a freestyle snowboarding area, an area for toboggans and snowball fights, an indoor zipline and five ski runs, including a black diamond run, the highest level of difficulty in skiing. Ski Dubai also has a penguin colony of Gentoo and King penguins that people can meet and interact with. Though not the only indoor ski resort with penguins, Ski Egypt has Gentoo and Chinstrap penguins, which is the most well-known. The entire area is extremely family friendly, which is why it continues to be one of the most popular attractions in Dubai.

King Penguins at Ski Dubai. Pranav Bhasin. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

For an avid skier, indoor skiing might be a very interesting experience, but it doesn’t come close to skiing on an actual mountain. Having such a limited space can lose interest towards experienced skiers, but less experienced people tend to enjoy indoor resorts more. Another factor that could affect this is that skiing on fake snow is different than skiing on real snow.

Fake snow is stickier than real snow, and it’s much harder and more packed. Skiing on it isn’t as smooth as on real snow. The composition of real snow is around 10% ice and 90% air, but man-made snow is closer to 30% ice and 70% air. Of course, indoor ski slopes can’t exactly use real snow, so these resorts are made entirely of this kind of snow. However, since it is still snow, it will melt in heat. Indoor ski resorts have to be cold to maintain it. Ski Dubai stays at a constant -4Celsius, or 24.8 Fahrenheit. Therefore, despite being located in the desert, the inside of Ski Dubai is fairly cold and a stark contrast to the outside heat.

Austria’s Danube Island Festival attracts around 3 million visitors annually. The festival spans three days, offers all kinds of music, and is completely free to attend.

Crowd at Danube Island Festival 2018. Andreas Jakwerth posted by Donauinselfest. CC BY-SA 2.0

Each year at the end of June, millions of people flock to an island in Vienna for a three-day musical event. The Danube Island Festival, as the event is known, is the world’s biggest open-air music festival, attracting over 3.3 million visitors every year. The festival hosts more than 2,000 musicians across three days and 19 stages, contains numerous food and souvenir stalls, and essentially turns the island into a giant, booming party—and admission is free.

The Danube Island Festival is held on Danube Island, a 13-mile man-made island located between the Danube River and a parallel, excavated channel known as the New Danube. When the island was created in 1972, its primary function was to serve as part of Vienna’s flood prevention system; the Danube crosses the city, so flooding is a major concern. Now Danube Island is a hub of recreation, complete with beaches, a trampoline center, a climbing park, a network of trails, and a few bars and restaurants. Danube Island is also full of wide green spaces, which easily become the venues for the Danube Island Festival. The island is located only a few minutes away from Vienna’s city center, making it a wonderful venue, as festivalgoers can stay in the city and sightsee while still having quick access to the festival grounds.

What would grow into the world’s biggest music festival began as a promotional event for Danube Island. In 1983, Austrian politician Harry Kopietz introduced the idea of a one-day party on Danube Island to demonstrate its value as a recreational area. Event organizers expected around 15,000 people to show up and were stunned when the party had over 160,000 attendees. Since the event was wildly successful, it was held again the following year, and the number of visitors nearly doubled. The Danube Island Festival has been an annual event ever since, and has steadily grown in popularity to reach the millions of visitors it has today. The festival also increased in length from one day to three, to accommodate the number of visitors and to provide more performances.

The festival offers music for everyone, from little-known local bands to world-famous headliners and everything in between, in a multitude of genres. In past years, there have even been performances from the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Headliners have also included the Backstreet Boys and Simple Minds, as well as a number of artists famous among German speakers.

Even the COVID-19 pandemic couldn’t put a stop to the Danube Island Festival, which occurred in alternate form in 2020. Instead of one large three-day event, the 2020 festival took place over 80 days and throughout Vienna; a double-decker bus with an open-air stage on top toured the city, bringing over 200 live performances to the Viennese people. For 2021, the festival is scheduled to take place from Sept. 17-19 in a hybrid format. The double-decker performance bus will be back roaming the city from August to September, and festival organizers hope to hold a scaled-down version of the festival with mostly local acts if public health permits.