What a late summer day! 20 degrees, festival stands and smells, intergenerational bustle on the grounds at Obere Au, music from tents, on stage, freestyle qualifications on the Big Air, nicely mixed program, merging into each other. The most visited band in the afternoon was 01099 from Berlin.
Festival atmosphere arises as we drive to the venue. Finding the place is quite easy. Just follow the huge scaffolding for the ski jump.
Yesterday it was still raining, today Chur presents itself in picture book weather. Hundreds of visitors, mainly youngsters, flock to the site so early. Once inside, it really is like an openair. Food stalls, merch and promotional material everywhere. The mood is chill, people are slowly waking up on this Saturday morning.
What are we here for now? Snowboard or music? For both! The best of both worlds in the most beautiful autumn weather. The snowboard gods are kind to us today. We are already amazed by the fat and stylish tricks during the warm-up of the boarders and can already guess what will await us in the evening.
But now the music is in the foreground. KT Gorique, 01099, Steff la Cheffe, Kraftklub play one after the other to warm up.
There are even people who traveled to Chur just for one band: 11090. Everything else was then just a side dish, so to speak. The Swiss enjoyed the only CH act with Steff la Cheffe. Something local Couleur must be then just also. At least we were well tuned and ready for the snowboard finals in the evening and still in the best Grisons autumn weather.
At eight o'clock sharp, spotlights on the Big Air and the 8 women and 10 men who provide the 15,000 on the course with a show that is not boring for a second. And it's all about top sport and winning the first FIS World Cup of the season. For the first time in Chur Reira Iwabuchi and Takeru Otsuka take the victory. After 2 of 3 rounds, they are in a commanding, almost unassailable lead. Reira Iwabuchi goes one better with her Frontside 1080 Chicken Salad and 90 points from the judges. Not so her Japanese teammate Takeru Otsuka. After all the overhead spins, two-three-four times around his own axis, what does Tokeru show as a glory lap? A stylish Method. This is how he ends the action on the ramp with the classic of snowboarding.
The 3-continent podium is filled, as in 2021, by Anna Gasser in second place and Jasmine Baird in third. In the men's event, Nick Pünter jumps onto the World Cup podium for the first time in third place, bringing the Swiss audience to the brink of madness. Noah Viktor in fourth place makes his fans and Team Germany cheer with the best result.
After the finals, the action is back in full swing on the live stage next door. Deichkind give everything at the end of their 2022 festival tour. With the rubber boat over the "Remmidemmi"-singing crowd the stage show ends and sends thousands happy into the night.
Thank you Chur. It was a great event, the mix of sport and culture was perfect and it was also a perfect business card for the mountain metropolis on the Rhine and the snowboard sport. Se tuned up for the winter can this now come. Hopefully we will see each other again next year on October 20 and 21, 2023.
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