It's looking like Skiers Plaza is going to be the place to kick start a night of partying during the Olympics, complete with feats of athleticism and flames.
Darren Kinnaird has been producing Whistler Blackcomb's weekly Fire & Ice shows for about five years. But this is actually the 12 th year for the popular shows, which are a sort of outdoor welcome reception for visitors. Talented athletes throw down some jaw-dropping tricks, accompanied by DJs and fire jugglers, every Sunday through the winter season.
"They're all world-class athletes and they just happen to be part of the ski school, which is pretty cool," Kinnaird said.
The show has become so popular, in fact, that the Whistler Live! team has decided to include it in the nightly Olympic programming.
"They approached us last January. It was kind of our dream," Kinnaird said, recalling that three or four years ago he did an interview with Mountain Life Magazine and stated that they wanted to make it to the Olympics.
"It was pretty cool when they called us!"
In February, crowds of thousands are expected to gather in Skiers Plaza each evening during the Games to check out the spectacle, which has been dubbed Fire & Ice Remix.
"I just think it's going to be this amazing cap off to the day and a great way to finish off the celebrations," Kinnaird said.
"You kind of combine the sport and music and lighting package and everything that the guys have planned and I think it's just going to be an amazing way to showcase some of the best parts of Whistler."
The Remix will see the weekly event reinvented, with 15 to 18 athletes performing instead of the typical eight, using three rings of fire rather than just one.
"We're planning to have the ability to change the colour of the flames mid-show, so that's something our special effects team in Vancouver is working on."
The performance aspect of the Olympic shows with riders and skiers will last between 30 and 40 minutes.
"This will be... kind of an artistic show with art, dancing and music, and then the athletes will start being incorporated into the show," Kinnaird explained.
The entire show will be choreographed, with an artistic component, small jumping section, another larger artistic component featuring the main stage act, and then the jumping through rings of fire.
"The athletes will all be coming through at the same time - they'll be put in teams of three and so they'll be coming down three at a time, three guys doing 360s all at once or 720s."
They plan to have a team of 22 high-level skiers and riders to perform during the Games.
"It's going to be non-stop," he said with a laugh, adding that they have one more audition and then training sessions before the Games.
"To me, its more of an honour to be asked to do this," he said. "When I first started to talk to the athletes about it last winter, I think everyone was... pretty proud of what the show has become and what it's going to be."
And of course, the visual feast will be set to music.
Ace Mackay-Smith, creative director of the Fire & Ice Remix performances, is also a DJ who goes by the stage name Foxy Moron. She has a personal passion for electronic music and she's one of the masterminds behind the just-released musical lineup for the Fire & Ice Remix.
The roster features some big international names like Kid Koala and Keys N Krates sandwiched between equally impressive Canadian talent - Chromeo and Swollen Members - and some local performers, like B.Traits, Mat the Alien and Vinyl Ritchie.
"Some of the acts were kind of already booked or almost booked before I even came on board," Mackay-Smith said.
Many artists were already coming to the Olympics to perform as part of the CODE Live events in Vancouver.
"I'm happy with (the lineup) because with Chromeo and stuff like that, they're Canadian and they're also a big name," she said.
The talent had to be a mix of Canadian, French, and international.
The Skiers Plaza stage entertainment roster features Kid Koala, MJ, The Mole, Deadbeat, Swollen Members, DJ.Czech, Josh Martinez, Fort Knox Five, Neighbour, Keys N Krates, Maestro Fresh Wes, Tigerstyle, Chromeo, Smalltown DJs, Team Rezofficial, B.Traits, Grand Analog, Mat the Alien and Vinyl Ritchie.
"Chromeo I am kind of excited for because I've never seen them and I was at Pemb Fest and I played there and I missed them because I was working!" Mackay-Smith said with a laugh.
"Team Rezofficial is going to be kind of cool because... they're First Nations rappers. So I actually saw those guys on TV and thought, 'oh, we should try and get them!'
"Keys N Krates I'm excited for, too, because they're so different... It's a DJ but he has a band, so there are instruments and they play kind of modern songs, but with instruments, but he pretty much carries it."
It wasn't easy to pick from the vast pool of Sea to Sky musical talent and though there's a strong local representation at the Fire & Ice Remix show, Mackay-Smith promises there will be more to come during the entertainment lineup at the Paralympic Games. She plans to notify the artists that have been selected for the March shows in the coming weeks.
"Ideally, I wanted to get as many locals as possible just because I feel like a lot of the times at these big events we don't have any locals playing. And I kind of think that we should include as many, because a lot of them are as good or better, really, than some of the DJs that get brought in."
