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Party time

Wild weekend ahead for Whistler

The Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival is offering up some insane party events for this year’s final festival weekend.

Go to one. Go to ’em all. Just make sure you go hard because the time is now. There will be plenty of time to chill in the off season.

Smirnoff Experience with a wink and a smile

The elusive extended hour soiree at this year’s festival is the domain of the folks from Smirnoff, who bring their famed international Smirnoff Experience party series to Whistler on Saturday night.

The party kicks off at 10:30 p.m. at the Whistler Conference Centre and won’t stop until the wee hours of Sunday morning.

Headlining the Smirnoff decks is longtime East Coast American trance/house music master Josh Wink.

Wink’s strong supporting crew includes funky tag-team house music DJ duo The East Coast Boogiemen (a.k.a. Ken Christensen and Juan Zapata), U.K. breakbeat DJ Ali B, and house music DJ/Producer Hipp-e.

The event’s local flavour comes courtesy of Czech, a Vancouver DJ/producer and former Whistler resident who is known around these parts as the founder of the 13-year strong Soul Kitchen club night at Tommy Africa’s on Sunday. Czech is also know for his ability to throw down everything from the world’s most cutting edge breakbeats to notorious "rewind" sets of old school club anthems from mid-nineties warehouse raves.

Tickets for the Smirnoff Experience are $10 in advance or $15 at the door.

Speaking of Tommy Africa’s the club has secured another illustrious Smirnoff Spinner — house music DJ Mark Oliver, best known as a longtime resident of Toronto superclub The Guvernment, for Friday night.

Battle of the Beats goes big

Leading up to the Smirnoff Experience on Saturday, April 16, the festival is hosting an outdoor urban music street party of epic proportions they’re calling Battle of the Beats.

Beginning at 8:30 p.m. the outdoor main stage in Skier’s Plaza will host an urban music lineup that includes local favourite DJs Mat the Alien and Vinyl Ritchie, visiting Montreal DJ duo Team Canada — a.k.a. Grandtheft and DR One. Adding the rhymes is a deep MC talent pool that includes Swollen Members Moka Only and Prevail, Emotionz and Toronto’s K’naan.

Battle of the Beats will be accompanied by a visual orgasm of performance artists that includes go-go gals, Brazilian Capoeira dancers, breakdancers and firespinners, all going off at the same time.

Things wrap up around 10 p.m., conveniently just in time to make it to the Smirnoff Party.

Unlike the Smirnoff Party however, Battle of the Beats is absolutely free, part of the festival’s DKNY Jeans outdoor concert series lineup.

If Saturday night’s one-and-a-half-hours of Mat the Alien isn’t enough, go by Garfinkel’s on Sunday evening where he’ll be hosting a regional elimination round of the DMC World DJ Championships.

Glow forever

If Saturday night’s one-and-a-half hour set of Vinyl Ritchie isn’t enough, you can catch him at the Freeskier Party at the Longhorn on Friday night.

Whatever you do, save something for Glow Me, the festival’s official closing party on Sunday, April 17.

Vinyl Ritchie will trade off on the decks with Czech, a refugee from the previous night’s Smirnoff Experience in a room made totally neon by celebrated local party gurus Ace MacKay Smith and Michael Ziff, who have been planning festival parties since the festival’s humble beginning.

There’s really no better way to glow out.