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Whistler’s town party turns 15

Fifteen's tough. It's one of those unusual odd numbers that seems kind of even and round, owing to its triad grouping of fives, and therefore worthy of celebration. Yet, 15 isn't really an age most of us celebrate to any great extent.
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Fifteen's tough. It's one of those unusual odd numbers that seems kind of even and round, owing to its triad grouping of fives, and therefore worthy of celebration. Yet, 15 isn't really an age most of us celebrate to any great extent.

Fifteen's the nether region between childhood and adulthood, a time given over to adolescence, pimples, a raging - and quite possibly guilt-producing - curiosity about all things sexual and any number of things to make us feel self-conscious: awkward growth, cracking voices, responsibility without authority, pubic hair, lack thereof, group showers, first dates, an unnatural obsession with the exact definition of cool and the woeful realization we fall far short of achieving it.

On the other hand, 15 really is cool if you're talking about the Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival. Just having survived to the 15 th edition of anything in a town like Whistler, with its transient population and short attention span, is something to celebrate. And having found enough enthusiastic volunteers not suffering Olympic burnout to pull it off this year is both noteworthy and, well, reason enough to celebrate.

So Whistler, let's get down. This is your town party.

If you want to channel some spirit, feel some community pride or any of the other emotions being batted about as reasons(sic) for squandering tax dollars on the single summer celebration that needs it least - Canada Day - all you have to do is wander the village any afternoon during the Festival. What you'll see is turned-on Whistleratics groovin' to free music, checkin' out the art at the conference centre, catchin' the latest generational films, watching athletes that matter to them doing things they like to do, soaking up generous amounts of patio time and generally creating the cultural vibe that makes this place unique in a sea of cookie-cutter ski towns.

What you won't see, for the most part, are the folks who think that other, contrived party makes sense. For reasons best left to prolonged psychoanalysis, they're channeling some palpable negativity towards WSSF. Some say it's personal, I just think it's an age thing. Not necessarily a chronological age thing. It's just that they've gotten too serious to be frivolous enough to take their clothes off and dance nekkid... metaphorically, thankfully, not literally, even more thankfully.

Oh well, their loss.

On the celebration of its 15 th birthday, let's reminisce. Just a little. Let's remember, for example, what a ridiculous idea holding an, at the time, sporting event in a ski town in April was back in 1995.

Ridiculous? How about desperate? Insane? Whacko? All those epithets were applied to the Festival's founder, Doug Perry. I know, because I applied most of them at various times, generally with his acquiescence if not outright permission. Let's face it, you have to be a bit of all those to launch the World Technical Skiing Championship - oh, how far we've come - at a time of year when all but the most hard-core sliders have put away their snow gear and gotten out their surfboards.

The WTSC was an instant success... as long as you can stretch the definition of success to include working for nothing, suggesting to stakeholders they hadn't lost their entire investment - it was just hiding - and digging the Zen of the sound of one hand clapping, that being about all the applause generated the first year.

That there even was a second year for the nascent festival is enough to make a guy believe in miracles. And by its third birthday, everyone thought Doug was going places. Alas, where they wanted him to go was pretty much anyplace other than Whistler. That was the year live music was added to the fringe sporting events. When an obscure band called Nickelback - how obscure? They played for $500 and a case of beer - took the stage, then in the centre of town, and rattled the windows of every condo around, the villagers broke out their torches and came looking for whomever was responsible.

Every successful event like WSSF has growing pains though and with lessons learned, warnings heeded and lots of hard planning, things went straight downhill from there. Quoting the police report from the following year's Festival, "The most recent version of the World Ski & Snowboard Festival was just a spark away from a riot. Had that happened, there would have been nothing the police could have done to stop it."

That was because - in the opinion of local RCMP - the "...festival crowd was partaking freely of liquor and narcotics..." leading to an "...infamous snowball fight..." wherein the crowd, "...inflamed by the emcee who egged (them) into throwing snowballs at the VIPs on the deck of the GLC..." resulted in the "... liquor store being overrun and... 15 arrests." Well hell, if that ain't your definition of a successful Festival you might as well book your spot at the church picnic, prude!

Since those early years, WSSF's morphed into a well-rounded, well-attended, well-behaved - okay, that last one's an exaggeration - celebration of mountain culture. Film and photography, fashion and art and, of course, live theatre have been added. The music's still leading-edge, visual artists are more prominent, alcohol and narcotics have all but vanished and there hasn't been a good snowball fight in.... What's that? Okay, let's not go there.

And while Doug's gone, at least physically, his spirit lives on in the hearts of those who remember and in the always fresh, always performer-oriented efforts of Sue Eckersley, Festival Queen and matriarch of the Women of Watermark who prove every April that girls kick ass.

So get out if you haven't yet. If you have and are, what are you wasting your time reading this for? Don't you have an event to attend?

The Chairlift Revue, for example? Yes, this is a shameless plug for Whistler's original, local theatrical undertaking. All indications are we'll pull it off for the fourth time in as many years. Those of you who support it, thanks. It'll be better this year than ever. Those of you who don't know it, get with the program.

Those of you who talk about Whistler "developing" local theatre, this is it. Written locally, acted locally, produced and directed locally, and done for the pure, unadulterated love of it... which is a backdoor way of telling all the actors and writers they're not getting paid again this year. If you believe in local theatre - and I know who you are - I want to see you there Sunday evening... clapping wildly.

Happy 15 th WSSF. Happy town party, Whistler. If ya ain't here, you're nowhere.