More Than 500 Events for World Snow Day 2018 This Weekend
World Snow Day, the global celebration of all things snow is back this weekend for its seventh edition.
The annual special snow day was conceived by the International Ski Federation to be a day when the global snowsports community got together to help promote snowsports and snow fun – especially to families and children.
This year’s World Snow Day is this Sunday, January 21st, 2018.
Ski resorts, as well as regional and national groups of ski resorts, all around the world offer special fun events, free or discounted snowsports experiences.
This year 521 events and actions have been registered to take place in 46 countries around the world.
“It is humbling to see so many various stakeholders from so many nations come together to achieve one goal, to let children explore, enjoy and experience the snow,” said FIS President Gian Franco Kasper.
This year’s World Snow Day will see full national initiatives in four countries: Austria, China, Poland and Lithuania.
Poland will play host to 50 ski and snowboard schools providing free lessons for children whilst China will see 55 resorts hosting a variety of actions including free lift passes, lessons and equipment rental. In both cases these are double the size of previous World Snow Days in those countries.
“The nationwide actions are significant. Not only do they impact a lot of people but they show a whole country can enjoy snow,” Gian Franco added.
World Snow Day will also be celebrated in cities across the world, including some that never normally see snow, such as Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, or in southern hemisphere countries where late January is mid-summer such as South Africa, where Johannesburg will celebrate World Snow Day.
The cities of Beijing (CHN), Stockholm (SWE), Warsaw (POL), Vilnius (LTH), Dresden (GER), (RSA), Tallinn (EST), Minsk (BLR), Sofia (BUL) and Almaty (KAZ) have also signed up bringing snow sports to where populations are concentrated.
In its first three years World Snow Day saw steep growth with 225 events and actions in 2012 to 645 events and actions in 2015. In the next three years FIS aimed to steady the programme and averaged 500 annually.
For the upcoming three year period up to the 10th World Snow Day in 2021, the FIS have indicated they’ll aim for further steady growth and has set of goal of 500 events annually by 2022.
