Go Snow: A comedy festival in the upmarket ski resort of Méribel, directed by an Irishman? It's snow joke, writes Brian Boyd
AS THE ARTISTIC director of a comedy and music festival held high up in the French Alps every March, Dublin comic Andrew Maxwell really wanted to stage a live episode of the RTÉ show The Panelin the upmarket ski resort of Méribel.
“I’m going to be there anyway as director of the festival,” says Maxwell. “We have Colm Murphy coming out to do a few shows and it would have been possible if Neil Delamere could have come out, but he’s otherwise engaged, so it just won’t happen this year.”
The Altitude Festival – a dizzying combination of hectic skiing and snowboarding by day with a full-on après ski of comedy and music each night – is as popular with the Irish as it is with the British.
“About 35,000 people are over in the Méribel area for the skiing every March and this festival is all about bringing them a sort of contemporary après-ski programme,” says Maxwell. “We’ve got world famous DJs playing, some of the best music acts around and the sort of comics you would regularly see doing star turns on TV.
“Yes, it was a grand folly to launch a festival three years ago when we were going into the worst economic recession of the last 70 years, but it’s gone really well and now we’re hoping to expand it by getting a licence and being able to sell the flights and the accommodation to people – and not just the tickets to the show as it is now.”
The idea for Altitude came to Maxwell a number of years ago at the Edinburgh Festival. “There’s a dry ski slope just outside Edinburgh and I would bring some of my fellow comics out there to go snowboarding during the day,” he says.
“Myself and an English comic, Marcus Brigstocke, got talking one day about doing a comedy and music festival in a ski resort and a few years later it happened, thanks to some business partners.”
Méribel is perfect for Altitude. There are plenty of large capacity bars, a 350-seater theatre and a reputation among Irish and British skiers for being accessible and friendly, and not as haughty and snooty as other nearby ski resorts.
“From Geneva airport, it’s just a two-hour transfer and the place really is a delight,” says Maxwell. “For some reason Méribel has a big English speaking expat population anyway, so the language really isn’t a problem for visitors.
“All the shows are in English, but we do try and fit in by having ‘Franglais’ shows where the act, if they’re capable, will do their material in both English and French.
“Eddie Izzard, who has done entire shows in French, was right behind us from the start and he still wants to come over and do his show in both languages, and this year we’re very excited by getting Al Murray to perform because he has fluent French.”
This year's musical headliners are Newton Faulkner and The Quails, while DJ Yoda and Barry Ashworth will be handling the turntable duties. Four Poofs and A Piano (from Friday Night with Jonathan Rosson BBC1) will be staging their musical show and the comedy programme features Maxwell, Al Murray and Rich Hall, among others.
“There’s actually going to be an Irish-only show this year with myself, Colm Murphy and Ian Coppinger appearing, and next year we want to get all The Panel crowd out here,” he says.
Given that skiing holidays tend to attract a particular social class, these sort of niche festivals can be problematic, but for Maxwell the people who come to Méribel are not your stereotypical skiing types.
“If you go somewhere like Verbier, you will find that whole ‘Chelsea tractor’ crowd, but Méribel is not just less expensive than some of the bigger name resorts but a lot more down to earth. Apart from the Irish who come here, I find that the British we get are not your typical city types,” he says.
With a company called Taking the Piste looking after all the organisational issues, the plan is to turn the festival into an “all-in” holiday next year or the year after.
“We’re here now for people who are in the area having booked their skiing holiday the traditional way,” he says. “People do tell us that they do wait until the end of March to book their holiday as they want to be part of Altitude.”
Maxwell describes Altitude as “the Kilkenny Comedy Festival up the top of a beautiful snowy French mountain” – which should be recommendation enough.
Altitude Festival is on March 20th-26th, altitudefestival.com
Go there
Aer Lingus (aerlingus.com) flies to Geneva from Dublin and Cork, and to Lyon from Dublin. Ryanair (ryanair.com) flies to Grenoble from Dublin
Highlife (01-6771100, highlife.ie) is offering fully-catered holidays in its Méribel chalets during the Altitude festival for €870pps for a week. The price includes transfers (but not flights), accommodation, meals and €100 worth of tickets for the festival.