Big Air returns to Innsbruck’s Bergisel venue

Big Air freestyle snowboarding and skiing will return to Bergisel in Innsbruck on November 27 and 28 as a FIS World Cup event and a competition called Airdrenaline, ORF reported.

The event will revive the former Air and Style venue, where the competition was held intermittently until 2015. Organisers said at a news conference on Tuesday that they wanted to build on the event’s earlier success.

Airdrenaline has a total budget of 3.7 million euros. The city of Innsbruck, the province of Tyrol and Innsbruck Tourism will each contribute one-third of about 1 million euros in public and tourism funding. The remaining financing will come from international concert promoter Live Nation.

Live Nation will also organise the music programme, which will focus mainly on German rap acts including RAF Camora, K.I.Z. and Bonez MC. Attendance will be limited to 10,000 people per day, while about 160 athletes are expected to compete.

Alongside the FIS World Cup competitions, both days will feature Style Sessions as the first programme item. The sessions are separate from the World Cup and will involve selected FIS athletes, who will have more freedom during their jumps than in the main competition.

Tyrol’s economics and tourism councillor, Mario Gerber, described the programme as a “cool event” for Innsbruck and said it offered a significant opportunity for the city and the region. Innsbruck Mayor Johannes Anzengruber said the city, Live Nation and other partners were working together to bring international attention to Innsbruck.

Roberto Moresi, the FIS Contest Director for Park and Pipe, welcomed the return to Bergisel, which he described as the sport’s original home. He said the aim was to make Airdrenaline Europe’s biggest freestyle event in the coming years.

The athletes competing have not yet been announced. Moresi said the line-up could be revealed in about a month. Matthias Schenk, head of freestyle sport at the Austrian Ski Association, said double Olympic champion Anna Gasser could be expected to take part, although he stressed that nothing had been finalised. He also highlighted opportunities for younger athletes.

The World Cup event marks a return to the birthplace of the discipline. Andrew Hourmont created Big Air in Innsbruck during the 1993-94 winter season, and the first Big Air competition was held at Bergisel in January 1994 under the name Air and Style.

The event’s history also includes the 1999 Bergisel tragedy. On December 4 that year, a crowd crush broke out at Bergisel Stadium before the awards ceremony. Five young women were crushed to death, while two other women died years later from injuries sustained in the disaster.