For the past nine years, The Squamish Mountain Festival has been a staple of the Squamish summer experience. Filled with speakers, clinics, and films, the festival continues to offer a place for climbers to gather and celebrate.
This year, the festival has gone through some substantial changes, including a change to the name and venue of the festival. When these changes were initially discovered, there was some concern about the changes on social media prior to the launch of the event website. Squamish Climbing Magazine thought that it would be best to go right to the source to find out about some of the decision making behind these changes. Justin Sweeny, the event manager for the Arc’teryx Climbing Academy, was kind enough to answer our questions and here is what he had to say.
Hi Justin, thanks for talking to us. So this year, it looks like the Squamish Mountain Festival has changed its name and concept. Can you tell us about the changes?
Hey Tim, thanks for touching base and I would be happy to walk you through the program for this year. This year we wanted to focus on the educational components of the event and we have combined some of the past successful elements of the Squamish Mountain Festival with our immensely popular Alpine Academy that takes place in Chamonix every June. The result is a new and improved, Climbing Academy in Squamish that still holds onto the same core values of bringing together a passionate climbing community to celebrate the sport in a truly amazing place to climb.
What brought on the changes this year?
With the festival in its tenth year of operation, we felt that this was the the perfect opportunity to take it up a notch and offer a higher caliber of events for festival attendees. Essentially maintaining all the past elements of the old festival but adding in a stronger educational and learning component to the event, an element that we feel is essential with the growth of the sport.
To give our readers a little perspective, how long has the Squamish Mountain Festival been running?
The Squamish Mountain Festival has been running for 9 years strong! Every year we have seen increased attendance to the festival as a whole. As the festival gained awareness in the Squamish Community, as well as the sea to sky region, attendance started to exponentially grow.
Has Arc’teryx always been the primary sponsor for the event?
The festival is sponsored by many ‘corporations’. The list of sponsors can be seen on the event web page as there are too many to list. In terms of primary sponsors, we have owned the event from the beginning, so have been the primary since the inception nine years ago.
I want to touch base about the venue for a bit. This year’s venue, for the films at least, is atop the Sea to Sky Gondola.
This is correct. As we were looking for areas to fuel inspiration, we felt the landscape the Sea to Sky offered was a great fit. The combination of its access into the alpine for a new offering of clinics, and a great backdrop to host keynote speakers, films and guest speakers made it a great fit for the festival.
It seems like the change in venue may limit accessibility to the Festival. Was that taken into consideration when making the decision to host the films up there?
We don’t feel that is the case at all, in fact having the films and speakers at the top opens attendance to not just the climbers and those who attend the clinics, but to everyone who wants to head up to the top. It therefore turns into a way to reach out, inspire and introduce climbing and it’s passionate participants to a wider audience.
To offset any additional expense to attendees we have been able to offer a discount on the day passes, as well as multi-day pass options to make heading up the Gondola worthwhile and economical. The value a pass holder gets for their ticket gives them much more this year than it has in years past. Purchasing a discounted Gondola pass during the festival allows you access all day to free yoga classes, educational seminars, key note speakers and Music performances by the Boom Booms and Jon and Roy. For seasons pass holders, which we suspected to be a reasonable percentage of attendees, there is no charge for anything.
So, a pass on the gondola insures you free access to the speakers and films atop the mountain?
Yes, this is correct. A day pass for the Gondola allows you access to everything that is scheduled for up there. Educational Seminars all day long, yoga classes, Key-note speakers and Live music (including performances from Jon and Roy and the Boom Booms)
How much will the passes cost at discount?
We are still confirming this information with the S2S Gondola. But there will be single day pass discounts and a three day pass discount with an add on for people who want to turn it into a season pass.
If people hike to the top, will they still be able to take in the festivities for free?
Indeed. Hard work for hiking the trail will be rewarded by complementary festival activates. What better way to compliment the amazing Sea to Sky trail hike than with a yoga class overlooking the Howe Sound. You will be required at that point to buy a download pass however.
Will some of the classic events, such as the tug of war and the dyno competition still happen downtown?
Absolutely. These are the events that everyone looks forward to, and we love putting them on in partnership with Maxim and Five Ten.
Why change the name of the festival?
The name change was to align with a series of events that we run globally as Arc’teryx. The sister event to this is in its 4th year in Chamonix called the Alpine Academy. it is a similar concept, focusing on Alpinism and alpine climbing skills. Instead of creating another climbing event somewhere else in the world, we felt that Squamish was the best location to introduce the re-designed event. Utilizing our already strong platform created with the Squamish Mountain Festival and building more value with the educational component.
From an outside perspective, the name change seems like a corporate decision that takes away from the identity of the festival. Was this considered by the sponsorship team at Arc’teryx?
The name change was to align with a series of events that we run globally as Arc’teryx. As the industry grows, and more people are introduced to these sports, we want to leverage the strength of our brand to help educate people and make sure when they are in these environments they are equipped with the skills and knowledge they need to achieve new personal goals and keep themselves and their partners safe. Nothing has been taking away from the identity of the festival, all original elements have been intact and we have just added some fresh elements to offer something new to participants that have been coming for years.
Thanks Justin, for your answers and your honesty. I think it is important for the folks who are looking forward to the event to know why the changes took place and your answers really clear that up. I am sure the event will be a hit!
For full details of the event, please visit the Arc’teryx Climbing Academy website.
