Rave on Snow is the oldest winter festival for electronic music in the Alps — and it started in 1994 with around fifty people in Sölden. Here's how that turned into a festival that now fills entire villages — and what you need to know if you're heading there.
Last updated: 31 July 2026
A multi-day electronic music festival held inside a ski resort: skiing during the day, techno and house across multiple floors from the afternoon onward, spread over huts, halls and bars in the village. It's been held in Saalbach-Hinterglemm since 1996, usually in December.
The short version:
- Founded: 1993 in Munich, first edition in 1994 in Sölden
- Today: Saalbach-Hinterglemm in the Salzburg region, since 1996
- Date: December, usually around the season start
- Music: techno and house, several floors running in parallel
- What makes it different: no fenced-off festival site — the village is the venue
- Size: up to 10,000 guests, around 12 floors, over 70 DJs
- Crowd: 18+, mostly German-speaking, plenty of returning visitors
💡 By the way: for the toast at the flat before you head out, we built the ski boot shot glass set with binding. More on that below ↓
What Rave on Snow is
Rave on Snow is a festival for electronic music that takes place inside a ski resort. The format has stayed the same over the years: the lifts run during the day and most guests ski, several floors run in parallel from the afternoon onward, and it continues into the night in the bars and halls down in the village.
The biggest difference from almost every other festival: there is no fenced-off site. The floors are spread across existing huts, halls and bars around the village — so you don't walk across a field from stage to stage, you walk through a village. That shapes the whole evening: access is checked with a wristband at each individual location instead of one central entrance. That means no single mega-entry queue at the start, but instead paths through the snow and a constant switch between indoors and outdoors.
No other electronic music festival in the Alps has run this long without a break — since 1994, every winter.
The history: from fifty people to the oldest snow rave
Rave on Snow was founded in 1993 by Thomas Kleutgen, Bob Sharestani, Kerstin Greiner and Daniel Dietzmann — four people from the Munich techno scene who shortly afterwards also launched Partysan magazine out of Domagkstraße.
The idea behind it is the reason we're writing about this festival at all as an apres-ski brand: they wanted to carry the concept of the apres-ski party over into the techno and house scene. Not bring techno to the mountains, but take what already happens at the hut after a day of skiing and put different music underneath it. In that sense, the mountain festival is literally a child of apres-ski.
The first edition ran in January 1994 in Sölden, with around fifty to sixty guests. A year later the festival moved to Zell am See and drew about 200 visitors. It's been held in Saalbach-Hinterglemm since 1996 — and even in that first Saalbach year, around 2,000 people showed up, according to the organisers.
In 1997, Rave on Snow featured in the VOX show "Rave around the World". After that, attendance roughly tripled, from around 2,000 to 6,000 — back then, a single TV appearance was enough to do that.
For a sense of how early all this was: Snowbombing didn't start until 2000, back then still in Risoul, France, before it moved to Mayrhofen in 2005. Tomorrowland Winter has only existed since 2019.
What we like most about this story is how small it started. Fifty people in Sölden isn't a festival, it's a good idea with friends. We know that feeling: we spent fifteen years living together on an alpine pasture in the Chiemgau, with a self-built lift in the garden, and our first Shotskis were glasses glued onto an old ski. Sometimes that's how things grow into something bigger.
Why Saalbach-Hinterglemm of all places
Saalbach-Hinterglemm was almost built for this format: a narrow valley, short distances, enough huts for a dozen floors.
The village sits in a narrow valley. Everything lines up along a single road, and the distances between locations are short enough to walk. That's exactly what a festival without its own site needs.
There's an unusually high number of huts and bars — around sixty across the Skicircus — that work as floors without anyone having to build a hall.
And the ski resort itself is excellent. The Skicircus Saalbach Hinterglemm Leogang Fieberbrunn is one of the largest in Austria, and the freeride terrain is genuinely worth taking seriously. If you only come for the music, you're missing half of it — the same observation we made about Ischgl.
If you want to get a sense of Saalbach beyond the festival, we cover more in our overview of apres-ski bars and hotspots.
How a typical day works
The day runs in four blocks: lifts in the morning, the first floors in the afternoon, a break at the flat, and the big floors at night.
- Morning: lifts. Anyone who stayed out late the night before skips them — and that's not a weakness, it's the reason you make it through the whole weekend.
- Afternoon: the first floors open, mostly in the huts up the mountain and at the base station. This is the festival's apres-ski moment, just with a DJ instead of a schlager playlist.
- Evening: a break at the flat — changing, eating, warming up.
- Night: the big floors down in the valley. This is where the bulk of the line-up plays, usually into the early hours.
The most common mistake first-timers make is trying to do everything at full intensity. Three days of skiing plus three nights out doesn't work. The people still standing on Sunday skipped the morning on at least one day.
And here's one thing we won't budge on — and neither does the organiser, who states outright "Don't Drink & Ride": if you've been out all night or drinking in the afternoon, you don't belong on the slopes the next day. After 17 hours without sleep, your reaction times are roughly what they'd be at 0.5 promille. A morning spent in bed isn't a wasted ski day — it's the reason you get home safely on Sunday.
What sets it apart from Snowbombing and Tomorrowland Winter
These three are often mentioned in the same breath, but they're very different events.
- Rave on Snow is the German-speaking one of the three and holds up to 10,000 guests. No festival site, no elaborate stage design, plenty of returning visitors, and musically focused clearly on techno and house. If you're travelling from Germany, Austria or Switzerland, you'll have the shortest journey.
- Snowbombing in Mayrhofen is a bit smaller at around 7,000 guests, but more international and more British in feel, with a much broader musical range — from drum and bass to hip-hop. April instead of December.
- Tomorrowland Winter in Alpe d'Huez is by far the biggest and most expensive, with around 30,000 visitors — complete with the stage design and production values of the Belgian summer festival.
For a first taste of the format, Rave on Snow is the obvious choice, simply because the travel and the language both work in your favour. For an overview of all winter festivals across the Alps, see our guide to winter festivals in the snow.
Who the trip is worth it for — and who it isn't
It's worth it if you like electronic music and you ski. That's the honest short version. The appeal of the format lies exactly in that combination, and both halves cost money: accommodation in a ski resort at the start of the season, plus a ticket, plus a ski pass.
It's probably not worth it if you're only coming for the music. In that case you're paying for half a ski holiday you won't use — for the same money, you can get a weekend with a comparably strong line-up in any major city.
December means early season. Snow conditions around the festival dates are often not yet ideal, and not every lift is running. If skiing is your main reason for coming, you're better off travelling at a different time of year.
Travel, accommodation, ski pass
The ski pass isn't included in the ticket, but you can book accommodation as a package through the organiser or arrange it yourself. So there are really four costs, not three: ticket, accommodation, ski pass — and the cable car ride up to the floors on the mountain, around €30 for the Schattberg and around €12 for the Hinterhag, both with limited capacity. Add up all four before you book.
Book accommodation early. The village fills up around the festival dates, and if you leave it too late you'll end up in the next valley over, needing a taxi every night.
Getting there without a car is realistic and usually the smarter option. Zell am See is the nearest major train station, and from there the 680 postbus runs into the valley; there's also a festival bus from Munich Airport. If you do drive, you'll need someone to stay sober anyway — within the village you get around on foot, and a night bus runs after dark. The floors up the mountain can only be reached by cable car.
Bring warm layers to change into. Skiing keeps you generating heat constantly; standing on a floor doesn't. The walk between two locations goes through the snow in sub-zero temperatures, often several times a night. What to pack is covered in our festival packing list — the winter version is coming soon. Our ski boot shot glasses have no business coming along on that walk — more on that below.
The evening starts at the flat
Between the ski day and the first floor there are a few hours back at the flat, and on a weekend like this they matter more than they seem to. That's where you shower, eat, warm up and decide who's coming along tonight and who's sitting one out. Anyone who's ever shared a holiday flat with eight people knows that this exact window is where the mood for the evening gets set.
That's why it's the one moment of the whole weekend where a shared ritual actually makes a difference — on the way between floors your hands are full, and once you're inside a location, you're buying whatever's on tap.
And because at Rave on Snow the village itself is the venue, there's a quirk here compared to festivals with entry checks: whether you're allowed to bring your own glasses inside is up to each individual hut — there's no single, festival-wide ban. In practice, though: glass stays at the flat. Whatever you bring along should fit in a jacket pocket. That's exactly where the wooden Miniski comes in: it's not a container, and with twelve floors running in the dark, it helps you find your people again. Just don't wear it around your neck while skiing — it belongs in your pocket.
If you're after something bigger for the group back at the flat, the SwigSki3000® is the version where everyone raises a glass at once — four to eight people on a single ski. In a group of eight sharing a flat, that's the moment everyone stands together before splitting up for the night across three different floors.
Frequently asked questions about Rave on Snow
What is Rave on Snow?
A multi-day electronic music festival held inside a ski resort. Skiing happens during the day, and from the afternoon onward several floors run techno and house, spread over huts, halls and bars. It's been held in Saalbach-Hinterglemm in the Salzburg region since 1996.
Since when has Rave on Snow existed?
It was founded in 1993 in Munich by Thomas Kleutgen, Bob Sharestani, Kerstin Greiner and Daniel Dietzmann. The first edition took place in January 1994 in Sölden with around fifty guests, followed by Zell am See in 1995, and Saalbach-Hinterglemm has been the permanent home since 1996. That makes it the oldest winter festival for electronic music in the Alps still running today.
Where does Rave on Snow take place?
In Saalbach-Hinterglemm in the Salzburg region of Austria. There's no fenced-off festival site — the floors are spread across existing huts, halls and bars in the village. Down in the valley you walk on foot from location to location, and you reach the floors up the mountain by cable car.
When is Rave on Snow?
In December, usually around the start of the season. The exact dates are announced by the organiser every year — don't rely on dates in overview articles, check the official website instead.
What music plays at Rave on Snow?
Mostly techno and house, across several floors in parallel with an internationally booked line-up. It has nothing to do with apres-ski schlager, even though it takes place in the same huts.
Is the ski pass included in the festival ticket?
No. Ticket, accommodation and ski pass all need to be booked separately. Accommodation is also available as a package through the organiser, and there are additional costs for the cable car rides up to the floors on the mountain. Ski pass and accommodation together usually cost more than the ticket itself.
Is Rave on Snow worth it if I don't ski?
To a limited extent. You're still paying for accommodation and travel to a ski resort, but only using half of what it offers. If you're coming purely for the music, you can get a comparable line-up for the same money in any major city. The appeal lies in combining both.
How do you get there without a car?
Via Zell am See, then the 680 postbus into the valley; alternatively, there's a festival bus from Munich Airport. It's the more relaxed option, since nobody has to be the designated driver.
Sources & date of research
Research conducted July 2026. Dates, prices and line-ups change every year and are deliberately left out of this article — they're published on the organiser's official website. Founding, founder names, venue changes and attendance figures: Wikipedia (Rave On Snow, Partysan), partysan.net, the organiser's own chronicle on raveonsnow.com. Format, locations, travel, ski pass and cable cars: the official FAQ on raveonsnow.com. Ski resort, number of huts and season start: saalbach.com; Freeride World Tour Fieberbrunn via tirol.at. Snowbombing: Wikipedia and snowbombing.com. Tomorrowland Winter: alpedhuez.com. On the "oldest" claim: the World Snow Festival in Grindelwald has been running since 1983 — but it's a snow sculpture festival, not a music festival. The assessments of the ski resort, the village and travel logistics are based on our own local knowledge; the festival's format is based on research.
Related articles
- Winter Festivals in the Snow – an overview of every winter festival across the Alps
- What Is Apres-Ski? – meaning, origins and traditions
- Apres-Ski Bars – the spots beyond the festivals
- Festival Packing List – the summer version as a starting point
- Apres-Ski Outfit – what actually works on the mountain