The UK’s only on-snow ski and snowboard festival, due to take place on 10-12 March at Glencoe Mountain Resort has been cancelled due to a lack of snow on the mountain. Many of the top international ski and snowboard brands were due to attend, offering the opportunity for people to see and try next year’s kit and equipment.
On a positive note, The North Face and Ellis Brigham Snow Film Night will still go ahead. “This is obviously a huge disappointment, but the film night was always going to be one of the highlights, so we’re all really looking forward to it,” says event director Neil Dalgleish.
Alongside the ski and snowboard activity, the Mighty Apres Party, supported by Drygate Brewing Company’s Seven Peaks IPA has also been cancelled for 2023.
“The Mighty Coe festival will be back next year. Scotland has always been unpredictable for snow, but things really do seem to be getting worse, and certainly more unreliable,” says Neil. “The festival raises money for Protect Our Winters – the climate advocacy organisation – and unfortunately that’s never felt more appropriate.”
The Mighty Apres Party was to be a major new addition to the festival for 2023, so there has been huge reluctance to halt all the plans for Glencoe’s first-ever big outdoor party. “A big dance party in Glencoe will be amazing,” says Neil Dalgleish, “It will bring something fantastic to one of the country’s most iconic locations. But you can’t have apres if there’s no one there to ski in the first place.”
While the weather forecast does promise snow in the week running up to the festival, the organisers have had to make the call that it’s too little and too late. “We expect new snow to come for that weekend and there’s a strong possibility the mountain will re-open,” says Neil. “But the situation is so dire right now that we’d need major snowfall in order to run the festival successfully. With partners, brands and visitors due to attend from all over the country, we’re left with no choice – it would be too big a gamble. But we’ll try again next year – snowsport in Scotland has a lot of life in it yet, and we all need to do our bit to fight climate change.”
All lift passes and tickets for cancelled events will be refunded in full.
More information is available from The Mighty Coe website.