- Just as it struck 4 PM on Saturday, the swarm of clouds that had been relentlessly dumping snow over southern Switzerland's Canton du Valais finally broke, and the valley below was drenched in glorious sunshine for the first time in more than two days. Around the same time, Larry Heard and his exuberant vocalist, Mr. White, stepped up for their Swiss debut at Polaris Festival, beaming widely and shaking hands with the crowd. The structure that housed Le Mouton Noir—a large, terraced venue perched 2,200 metres above the Alpine village of Verbier—was transparent, which meant the duo were framed by a perfect view of the Alps behind.
Held annually in early December, Polaris is a gathering of around 1,000 revellers who flock to the Alps for an early-season fix of skiing and good dance music. Putting on an event this early in the season is a gamble, as conditions in the Alps are famously temperamental. Last year, for example, saw temperatures hover around the mid-10s, and the snow wasn't great. Compare that with this year: over 100cm of snow was forecast to fall, with temperatures predicted to drop well below zero all weekend.
Verbier is an ideal location for this kind of event. A combination of exceptionally good (and occasionally extreme) skiing alongside a fruitful après-ski culture helps to attract a young, enthusiastic crowd to the resort year-round. The people at Polaris would probably feel familiar to anyone who's raved at altitude before. Fresh-faced seasonnaires—clad in glitter and wearing animal onesies—bumped shoulders with hardened skiers and Swiss locals. The atmosphere was rowdy yet good-natured, a vibe reflected by the festival's music policy. This year, legends like Heard and Omar-S featured alongside minimal DJs (Praslesh) and party-starters (Job Jobse, Young Marco), though the majority of the bill was made up of big-room acts (Luciano has played every edition so far).
Seth Troxler, spinning early on Friday afternoon, was another of the heavyweights. MU's "Paris Hilton" and Photek's classic "Glamourama" both featured in a lively set that went down tremendously with the crowd, who seemed ready to let loose. Butch followed, though a reliance on loopy house tools meant that, after Troxler's playful style, his set grew tiresome pretty quickly. Saturday's bill was easily the most anticipated of the weekend, with house music royalty flown in from Chicago and Detroit. Larry Heard and Mr. White's set—blessed with the bonus of clear skies and rays of sunshine—was about as uplifting as it gets. After a stint of Heard classics, a chant of "No wars, no walls, bring them down!" led into a rendition of Robert Owens' 1987 track "Bring Down The Walls" (co-written and produced by Heard), a fitting anthem for today's political climate. Towards the end of their set, Omar-S emerged behind the decks. Black bucket hat pulled low over his eyes, he launched into a pumping set that suited the darkness that had swiftly fallen over the room. There was the usual smattering of his own productions—"Set It Out," "Day," "The Shit Baby"— plus a frantic acid tune that sent my friends and I scrambling for an ID (as of yet, not joy).
If you weren't ready to pack it in when Le Mouton Noir's daytime programme finished at 11 PM, you had the choice of various late-night venues spread across town. I went for Le Farinet two nights running, a swish bar/club that had been fitted with two punchy Funktion-One stacks. William Djoko and Young Marco both played here, though it wasn't until Sunday evening's sets of bouncy minimal (typified by Barac's "Ordinary Conversations") courtesy of Sandro Kühne and Praslesh that the space really came into its own.
A severe blizzard swept into the valley in the early hours of Sunday morning, forcing the final day's programming to be cancelled. Thankfully, organisers moved promptly to reschedule the final headliner, Nina Kraviz, to another (remarkably smaller) venue, L'Etoile. Those who braved the mammoth queues in subzero conditions were rewarded: catching Kraviz bang it out to a few hundred people in a tiny club is a pretty rare occurrence these days, and the atmosphere inside matched the occasion.
Now with a successful third edition under their belts, Polaris has nailed throwing a large-scale party in a ski resort. Getting the logistics right while fretting over extreme and unpredictable weather must be an arduous task, but aside from the final days' cancellations, the weekend went off without a hitch. There was plenty of time to ski before catching the acts, with the main stage perfectly situated en route back down to the village. Queues for the gondolas were few and far between, and for a festival in one of the world's most expensive countries, food and drink prices weren't extortionate. All that said, there's room for improvement. Only about 10% of the lineup was made up of female acts, which isn't a great look in a scene supposedly out to champion diversity. Overall, though, Polaris is looking like a festival with real durability.
Photo credit /
Costantino Bedin - Lead, Seth Troxler
Pedro Correia - Tom Trago, Larry Heard
Wolf Mike - Omar-S
Seth Troxler, spinning early on Friday afternoon, was another of the heavyweights. MU's "Paris Hilton" and Photek's classic "Glamourama" both featured in a lively set that went down tremendously with the crowd, who seemed ready to let loose. Butch followed, though a reliance on loopy house tools meant that, after Troxler's playful style, his set grew tiresome pretty quickly. Saturday's bill was easily the most anticipated of the weekend, with house music royalty flown in from Chicago and Detroit. Larry Heard and Mr. White's set—blessed with the bonus of clear skies and rays of sunshine—was about as uplifting as it gets. After a stint of Heard classics, a chant of "No wars, no walls, bring them down!" led into a rendition of Robert Owens' 1987 track "Bring Down The Walls" (co-written and produced by Heard), a fitting anthem for today's political climate. Towards the end of their set, Omar-S emerged behind the decks. Black bucket hat pulled low over his eyes, he launched into a pumping set that suited the darkness that had swiftly fallen over the room. There was the usual smattering of his own productions—"Set It Out," "Day," "The Shit Baby"— plus a frantic acid tune that sent my friends and I scrambling for an ID (as of yet, not joy). If you weren't ready to pack it in when Le Mouton Noir's daytime programme finished at 11 PM, you had the choice of various late-night venues spread across town. I went for Le Farinet two nights running, a swish bar/club that had been fitted with two punchy Funktion-One stacks. William Djoko and Young Marco both played here, though it wasn't until Sunday evening's sets of bouncy minimal (typified by Barac's "Ordinary Conversations") courtesy of Sandro Kühne and Praslesh that the space really came into its own.
A severe blizzard swept into the valley in the early hours of Sunday morning, forcing the final day's programming to be cancelled. Thankfully, organisers moved promptly to reschedule the final headliner, Nina Kraviz, to another (remarkably smaller) venue, L'Etoile. Those who braved the mammoth queues in subzero conditions were rewarded: catching Kraviz bang it out to a few hundred people in a tiny club is a pretty rare occurrence these days, and the atmosphere inside matched the occasion. Now with a successful third edition under their belts, Polaris has nailed throwing a large-scale party in a ski resort. Getting the logistics right while fretting over extreme and unpredictable weather must be an arduous task, but aside from the final days' cancellations, the weekend went off without a hitch. There was plenty of time to ski before catching the acts, with the main stage perfectly situated en route back down to the village. Queues for the gondolas were few and far between, and for a festival in one of the world's most expensive countries, food and drink prices weren't extortionate. All that said, there's room for improvement. Only about 10% of the lineup was made up of female acts, which isn't a great look in a scene supposedly out to champion diversity. Overall, though, Polaris is looking like a festival with real durability. Photo credit / Costantino Bedin - Lead, Seth Troxler Pedro Correia - Tom Trago, Larry Heard Wolf Mike - Omar-S