Spring, time for parties and fun in the snow. One of the wildest (and most popular) parties in the Alps is the Snow Week: from 8 to 10 April it returns to Marilleva 1400, in the Trentino Val di Sole, to close the ski season with the “Season Closing Party”. Three days of skiing and snow in the Campiglio Dolomiti di Brenta ski area with two nights of music, performances and assorted events for a young audience, aged 18 to 35. A great party topped off with sports, music and barbecues in the snow, visual art, live painting, après ski on the terrace, dinners in the hut and DJ sets from dusk to dawn.
These weren’t easy years for event organizers. First the lockdown, then the travel restrictions and security measures for Covid. Now finally the cords have loosened a bit, and from 1 April with the end of the state of emergency they will be even more so, even if it is still advisable to keep attention and avoid risky situations if possible.
Roberto Malossi is the organizer of Snow Week. How have the last two years been, between lockdowns and restrictions?
“A disaster. In a year and a half we had to cancel four major events, with economic losses, time, for the management of refunds to customers who had already booked. We had to jump through hoops since parties and events were canceled by decree during the pandemic ».
Snow Week organizer, Roberto Malossi
Have you received any refreshments from the government?
«Yes, but negligible, medially from 1 to 5% of the losses. Among the organizers of events there are those who have lost 80/90% of their turnover. People already in debt, with mortgages on their backs and dependent families. At that point, faced with uncertainty about the future, you have to make choices. The fact is that there are those who have been able to reinvent themselves and others who, on the other hand, live on that alone ”.
On March 31, the state of emergency expires, and consequently several laces that made the organization of an event like Snow Week complicated. Are you more relieved?
«For sure, even if the experience of these years has taught us that the rules can change from one day to the next, with new decrees and changes taking place. And every extra rule, for those who organize events, is a possible sale in less. We are now used to improvising and planning things only in the short term. I just hope that this time the road map of returning to normal will be respected by the government ».
The worst, however, seems to be behind us. Or not?
«It seems so, and you can see it from the response of the people who have returned to book despite the fact that the pandemic is not over and now the war in Ukraine is too. I am positive for the future, even if the sector is battered by closures. The operators no longer have hay on the farm, there are fewer staff, fewer services, the bills are more expensive. Some have decided to close the ski huts early. A widespread insecurity remains: things that were previously certain are no longer so. But in the end the will to live always wins: it overcomes fears, restrictions, tangled rules ».
Snow Week is a successful format: what are its strengths?
«First of all, the tourist village-like formula, which favors aggregation and sociality by combining sport, music and entertainment. And then the price, starting from 119 euros for bookings made by March 29 on the website www.snowweek.it. Price that includes accommodation in a residence on the slopes, day deals, rental, ski school, lunches and drinks, all services and activities. And there is also a refund guarantee in case of cancellation ».
Not all customers are the same. There is the very young who wants to party all night and perhaps the more peaceful 35 year old who above all wants to live the day in the snow, having fun but without exaggerating. How do you make everyone happy?
“At the beginning we thought of dividing the residence by age group, but it is not the right solution: sometimes the thirty-year-olds are more wild than the eighteen-year-olds. So we decided to divide the residence into zones, and everyone can choose the one they prefer. There is the Relax area, to spend peaceful nights and be the first on the track; the Easy, to have fun in the evening but without exaggerating; and the High Vol, for those who want to party 24 hours a day ».