Rise Festival 2022 more than lives up to its promise of “a party on top of the world”

Do you like the feeling of drum and bass reverberating through your chest? Is the crisp mountain air and a face full of white stuff (snow, of course) your idea of a hangover cure? The Venn diagram of those who like to ski hard and party harder might be slender – but bring 7,000 of them together and they’re a damn good time.

The Upcoming had the pleasure of joining that very crowd for Rise 2022, the week-long mountain and music festival in the French Alps, which took place in the run-up to Christmas in December last year. With Les Deux Alps’ pistes to explore by day, and a blistering line-up of bass-heavy acts kicking off from mid-afternoon until the early hours, it was both an intimidating and impossible-to-say-no-to prospect. Suffice to say, we survived to tell the tale.

Although this writer joined proceedings halfway through, I have it on good authority from our photographer extraordinaire Ambra Vernuccio the opening days of Rise 2022 were a blast, with British producer Shy FX – who shot to fame in the mid-90s with ragga-jungle track Original Nuttah – more than getting everyone into the mood on Sunday night, followed by London’s Phonox resident DJ, the brilliant Australian-born HAAi, keeping the energy high with her experimental and boundary-pushing sounds. Monday saw Eats Everything, aka Daniel Pearce, bringing his History of Rave concept to the Rise audience, who more than obliged.

Mine was a baptism of fire, stepping into Bongos Bingo, a fresher’s week nostalgia trip with bingo cards, cracking tunes and uber enthusiastic hosts, who had the beer-chugging crowd up on their chairs every other minute and bingo winners having dance-offs on stage to bag a plethora of high calibre prizes, from a George Foreman “complete with six-inch tray” to an Elsa Frozen doll. The “Henry, Henry, Henry fucking hoover” chant was playing on repeat in my head till the next day…

Next up it was onto the open-air Muzelle stage, my personal favourite, to catch Elkka aka Emma Kirby, a fast-rising singer-songwriter, producer and DJ who co-founded queer inclusive platform Femme Culture, and whose gig credits include supporting Caribou and Jon Hopkins, as well as gracing the stages of All Points East and the one and only Glastonbury. Kirby played a killer set bringing together her particular brand of house meets electronica. Keep your eyes peeled for her forthcoming album, due out next year.

It was then onto the legendary electronic duo Chase & Status on the main Alpine stage. One of the foremost acts in the drum and bass genre, Will Kennard and Saul Milton took no prisoners with their DJ set, keeping the entire crowd all out raving from start to end. An already packed night finished up in the cavernous Arena, the closest thing the festival has to a warehouse-style club, with the minimal tech of SOSA.

After dragging ourselves to a classical continental breakfast of pastries and coffee at our home for the week, the cosy Hôtel Les Flocons, it was up to the slopes to remember how to snowboard (it’s been a few years) and try to navigate down the mountain amidst total whiteout, a challenge without a hint of knowledge of the peaks but an adventure nonetheless. A stopover at lunch to recharge with tartiflette and vin chaud was just the ticket, arming us with plenty of fuel for Rise’s secret gig on a new stage, freshly created for this year on the mountaintop. As Sigma’s Cameron took to the decks for some banging tunes in the snow as the cloud cleared the views to the valley, with MC Dynamite on hand to rile up the skiers, Rise really did live up to its strapline of “party on top of the world.”

After skiing till last run, it was back to the Muzelle for a fierce and eclectic set from Lumiere followed by the founder himself, Jamie Thomson, playing back-to-back with the young and charismatic self-taught Welsh DJ Hollie Poet playing house and disco on main stage, warming up the crowd beneath snow of every kind, at times ramping up to full blizzard before petering out into gentle flakes. Testament to the pure resilience of the Rise attendees, there was no level of snowfall that would put them off partying.

Their staying power was further egged on by the arrival of the one and only Sister Sledge. The undisputed highlight of the festival, the group not only delivered an epic rundown of their renowned anthems and a smattering of tracks from ten studio albums, but put on the ultimate show. Energy levels were impressively high, while gig-long choreographed dance moves were barnstorming delights. The likes of We Are Family and Lost in Music, He’s the Greatest Dancer sounded as fresh as they did from the discos era heyday of 1979, as much of a floor filler to the newer generation as to their parents and their parents’ parents – a rare feat indeed. It also provided a moment’s welcome respite from the otherwise electronic line-up.

The feeling was mutual from the performers: “We loved every breathtaking minute!, Debbie Sledge said of the experience. “As we journeyed higher and higher into the French Alps, the vistas became more and more beautiful. But the brightest, most wonderful experience was entering a winter wonderland village of happy, energetic music lovers. It was magical to see such a huge crowd dancing and singing along with us in the snow! Rise Festival certainly is the biggest party on top of the world and we loved every breathtaking minute!”

The full Sister Sledge set came at the price of catching Sigma’s full set on the Muzelle, but the smart move by the organisers meant the crowd didn’t dominate in a single space, leaving plenty of space for dancing under the stars.

The night became a little messy after that, with the crowd dispersing into the Arena, and local bars Smithys and Avalanche, the latter offering the most carnage-leaning partying of the festival so far (watch out for the spikey staff who may or may not hold your coat hostage if they don’t like the look of you) but it somehow seemed an apt end to the crescendo of the week.

There’s no avoiding the fact it’s not a trip for the faint-hearted, and there’s a certain stamina one needs to make the most of it. But the magic of Rise seems to be its harmony between debauched vibes, mountain activities and its integration into the central village, plus, it being spread over a whole week gives you chance to party harder some days and ski harder others, or take a break over cheese and carbs when you need.

Speaking of which, you can certainly do worse than tucking into a crepe and traditional cider in Crêpes à Gogo, utterly delicious steak and vin rouge in Le Grain del Sel or indulge in some high-class French cuisine at 2,400 metres at Le Diable au Cœur. Aside from the skiing, there’s plenty of slope-side fun organised by Jibworx Events, such as the Santa dash (don’t forget to pack your Santa outfit) and the aptly named Sister Sledging (see what they did there?). If you can crack the code of a bit of balance, there are few trips that provide quite the exhilarating adrenaline rush of the combo of snow and music in one place.

Now the second biggest mountain festival in the world (beaten only by Tomorrowland Winter), Rise has grown to encompass an impressively diverse crowd in both age and nationality, perhaps unlike others of its kind, which lean more heavily to the studenty Brits. Even more impressive is how its grown almost organically, a word-of-mouth success whose diehard attendees start snapping up tickets for the following year before the line-up is even released.

It’s also not by accident but rather design that the festival feels so easy to get around, intimate and friendly. Les Deux Alps is the perfect village to be able to hop from place to place with ease, while the ski area (boasting 220km of pistes and Europe’s largest skiable glacier – handy when there’s little snow elsewhere) is easy to access from multiple lifts with plenty of options to ski down or get the lift down if you’ve indulged in a spot of mountaintop après ski (perhaps should be renamed “during ski”), Pano Bar being the spot of choice to pay a visit or three during your stay.

While the ski area isn’t huge, the wide slopes, with plenty of blues and red is perfect for those learning or improving, and for the more au fait, there’s off-piste and snowpark action aplenty to get that pushing-your-limit fix. Everywhere you look during the festival, there are security staff, and even on the slopes there are roving “snow angels”, on hand to help you get down the mountain if you need.

Finally, winding down from the Alps to fly back from Grenoble, there’s a certain satisfaction on seeing the hordes of totally exhausted but utterly satisfied festival-goers. While raving and boarding might seem unlikely bedfellows, for this writer, there’s really no better way to spend a week. So grab your fur bucket hat and get your ski bum to the mountain for Rise 2023.

Sarah Bradbury
Photos: Ambra Vernuccio

For further information and future events visit Rise Festival’s website here.