Vancouver hosted the first ever City & Slope festival this weekend, and what a weekend it was! With 4 days jammed packed with entertainment, Vancouverites and visitors weren’t left for a second without something to do.

Established as a tourism initiative to showcase what a fabulous city Vancouver is even in the off season, City & Slope was possible only because of the support and funding from the Vancouver Hotel Destination Association.

City & Slope consisted of 4 days, 3 slopes and 1 city. Kicking off the weekend with a launch party at Bar None on Thursday night, media, partners and friends came out to support the inaugural year of this brand new festival. With glow sticks as drink tickets, light installations from Illuminate Yaletown, and great speeches by Russ Cowan from the VHDA and Deputy Mayor Heather Deal, the launch party was the perfect start to an incredible weekend!

Friday brought back the tingling excitement of the 2010 Winter Olympics as Cypress Mountain hosted a Canadian House with live music, drinks and great Canadian food. Offering discounts on lift tickets to people sporting their Canadian attire and jerseys, Cypress Mountain provided an impeccable flashback to excitement of two years ago during the Olympics.

Illuminate Yaletown was a hit as the darkened street of Mainland was Illuminated with artistic light installations created by local artists on Friday and Saturday night.

The Karv ice sculpting competition stole everyone’s attention while they admired the craftsmanship of the detailed sculptures.

Music performances by Hey Ocean, Alesso and Kevin Scott took place on Friday night at nightclubs around the City and had people singing and dancing until the wee hours of the morning.

Grouse Mountain put on 24 Hours of Winter on the Saturday, which consisted of the slopes and facilities being open for 24 hours straight. Torch parades down the slopes, midnight snowshoe tours, night skiing, DJ parties on the deck at Altitudes and midnight movies kept the crowds up at Grouse entertained all night long.

Benny Benassi, Sander Van Dorn and Arty put on a killer DJ show at the Vancouver Convention Center on Saturday night that had everyone on their feet dancing all night long. KO and Dave Aude also put on great performances with in the city.

Sunday brought another flashback, but this time it was all the way back to the 80s at Mt Seymour! With mountain-goers decked out in 80’s fashion, the slopes were glowing with neon colours. Live DJ’s, outrageous outfits, and chances to win Recon Instrument goggles had the slopes packed all day long.

Sunday brought City & Slope to a close and the city was left buzzing with energy from all the happy, partied out participants of the festival. A huge thank you is owed to all the partners who participated in City & Slope and made this festival possible. We hope you enjoyed the weekend!