Preparations underway to ready Whistler for 13th TELUS World Ski and Snowboard Festival

WHISTLER, BC, April 10, 2008 -- The TELUS World Ski and Snowboard Festival�s unique fusion sports, music and arts gets underway April 11 in Whistler and operations crews are busy getting the resort ready for ten days and nights of non-stop events and entertainment.

In the Village, where 11cm of snow fell earlier in the week to freshen up the 265cm base, 10 tonnes of scaffolding is being set up to build viewing platforms, the Pontiac Battle of the Bands stage, and the Outdoor Concert Series Main Stage, where headline acts De La Soul, Lil'Jaz, The John Butler Trio, Blackalicious, The Trews, Ill Scarlett, Daniel Wesley, Julian Marley and Michael Franti & Spearhead will perform free concerts daily from 2:30pm.

On the mountain, 3 different competition venues are being constructed, providing elite level features to showcase the world�s best skiers and snowboarders. The Big Air (finals taking place at the base of Whistler, April 12, 8pm) will feature a brand new design, with a 65 foot step-over gap jump that Whistler Blackcomb Events Manager, YP (Peter) Young says, "will allow the riders to go higher and farther than ever before."

In addition, the 500 foot long Superpipe has been rebuilt to feature sheer 20 foot walls that will see riders and skiers at the April 16-19 competition gain maximum amplitude.

The Chief of Course for the Big Air and the Superpipe, master park-builder Steve Petrie, is also the designer and builder of the 2010 Olympic Halfpipe.

With Whistler Blackcomb�s talented crew of groomers and pipe builders logging more than 350 hours on the venues, and more than 7 million gallons of water pumped through the system by the snowmaking team, the Superpipe and Big Air jump will be ready to draw the best performances from over 200 skiers and snowboarders from around the world.

Saturday, April 12 will also see Blackcomb Mountain host the resurrected Orage Masters, a slopestyle contest that features the hottest skiers in the new school world, on a course designed by pro athlete, Vernon lad, TJ Schiller and built by a Whistler Blackcomb team under the guidance of park builder extaordinaire, Marty Gautrey.

Sporting events with a non-stop mind-blowing soundtrack is not all that�s in store at the thirteenth TELUS World Ski and Snowboard Festival.

The event�s artistic side has been nurtured over previous years, with 10,000 tickets available in a showcase of mountain culture, from Icon Gone, a debate about whether the best of Whistler is history (April 13), to the Schick Extreme 3 Fashion Exposed (April 18), to the theatre performance of The Chairlift Revue (April 20).

The Festival�s multi-media visual feasts, the Olympus Pro Photographer Showdown (April 17), the D250 Filmmaker Showdown and Second Cuts Screening (April 15-16), and the world premiere of mountain bike film Seasons (April 11), guarantee that every seat feels front and centre to capture the action with the ground-breaking multimedia installation, currently being constructed.

The 6-sided screen, dubbed "the Borg", is being installed by a 10 person team at Rocky Mountain Productions, with 900 foot of truss, 7 miles of cable, and a total amplification of sound of 55,000W. (That�s nearly 800 times the sound of your home stereo, according to the godfather of the installation, Scott McPhee.)

The Borg will then be struck down to make room for the Festival�s finale, the DJ Experience, featuring DJ Dan and Donald Glaude, Mark Farina and Mat the Alien, ensuring that the party doesn�t end when the sun goes down, April 19.

175 pieces of original art from leading street artists around the world are being hung in the 10,000 square foot gallery foyer of the TELUS Conference Centre, for the urban art exhibit, Brave Art, April 11-18. The exhibit receptions on April 12 and 13 will feature live painting from over 40 artists.

Whistler is a hive of activity, preparing the resort for ten days and nights of non-stop events and entertainment, that will turn Whistler into ground zero for the biggest celebration of mountain life, starting tomorrow.