For the first time in its ten-year history, the nomadic Alpine sports and social festival had suffered homophobic aggression - not once, but twice. The first physical attack on European Gay Ski Week (EGSW) guests resulted in swift arrests and charges - and thankfully didn’t cause any major harm. But the second left a guest - who'd been by himself after a party - with serious injuries. Meanwhile, the clutch of international drag artists serving as the event’s hostesses were subjected to repeated threatening verbal abuse.“The people of Les Menuires are as disgusted as we are,” Tonnic continues. “They love our event and have increased police and security numbers. We will not stand for homophobia in any form, and will continue to show the small-minded they will not win, by celebrating our diversity and staying visible. Please, move around the resort in groups, look after each other, and stay safe.”“There’s more to the event than just pornstar-bodied boys in precariously overloaded undercrackers”
A 70-something straight transvestite in a Lorraine Kelly wig trades flirty banter with a pack of smooth-cheeked Dutch twinks. Ballsy British girls braving the sub zero in crop tops jostle for podium space with avuncular American bears. Guests’ straight mates in comically crap DIY demi-drag coquet their way to the front of drinks queues. In one après session, among the predominantly British crowd I meet guests from Belgium, Venezuela, Israel, Switzerland, France and Canada, and am briefly interviewed by a Russian woman who organises orgies for a living to test my suitability to ghost-write her memoirs. (I discover later that China, Azerbaijan and the Bahamas are also among the 43 countries represented here, among 750-plus EGSW guests).“I am interviewed by a Russian woman who organises orgies for a living, to test my suitability to ghost-write her memoirs”
…until a former colleague asked promoter Kevin Millins how he’d go about it. Millins’ bodacious credits include co-running the iconic London gay club Heaven for 15 of its most successful years, being the UK’s most successful rave producer for a good chunk of the acid house era and legendarily crowning 1985’s London Gay Pride by sending Divine down the Thames singing live on top of a paddle steamer. He also loves skiing. “I thought, ooh, if I did that, I could ski for free,” he laughs. And European Gay Ski Week was born.Take a quick scoot around europeangayskiweek.com and you could be forgiven for thinking that, skiing and snowboarding aside, the event is all panto-camp drag, boozy dance parties and pornstar-bodied boys in precariously overloaded undercrackers. These are the standard, if overworked, marketing tropes for LGBTQ+ entertainment’s highest-spending audience sector: gay men.“A Jägerbomb counts as a cocktail when you’re in the mountains, right?”
“One of the things I love most about this event is that everyone else in the resort gets to see, as well as flamboyant parties where we’re all celebrating our difference in very visible ways, LGBTQ+ people doing really normal stuff - like having dinner, enjoying nature, getting some healthy exercise. That in itself readjusts the way people who may never have encountered a gay person see us. It helps them understand we’re not just stereotypes and they have nothing to fear from us.”“I mean, there’s nothing wrong with expressing togetherness by dressing up extravagantly, celebrating the hard-won battles to love who we want, and showing the world we’re not ashamed. And the events of this week show we need to keep asserting ourselves. But there have got to be more ways for gay people to find community than dancing around in jockstraps shoving dildos up each other, haven’t there dear?”“There have got to be more ways for gay people to find community than dancing around in jockstraps shoving dildos up each other, haven’t there dear?”
For those who want it, the daytime downhilling is serious. It’s a key USP that EGSW switches location every two years, and strictly between the biggest and best ski areas in the Alps. Les Menuires sits at the heart of the world’s second biggest lift-linked ski area, the 3 Valleys. Other EGSW bases have included the vast Espace Killy, Portes du Soleil and Alpe d’Huez, home to the world’s longest black run. For 2019 it touches down for the first time in Paradiski, (435km of pistes and more than 2,000m of vertical drop, stats fans).Choosing resorts like this means there is something for every ability level. (It also, handily, generally means there’s an above-par dining and bar selection.) For learners and improvers the event provides an EGSW-exclusive ski school, with preferential rates and small class sizes to encourage strangers to bond. For the confident, there are no fewer than 15 free, full-day, guided groups. These are divided up by sporting ability, and the all important question of how much time (and money) members want to devote to lunching.“The organisers are interested in pushing things forward in terms of more contemporary entertainment, and different ways of being queer”
“Snow is the great democratiser”, Millins tells me over cocktails (a Jägerbomb counts as a cocktail when you’re in the mountains, right?). “As soon as you’re sliding down a mountain, everyone from students to CEOs are mixing on a level social playing field”, (as are they also, it turns out, when down to their Speedos at the pool party). EGSW’s flexible pricing structure reinforces this function - there are options for those who want to share a room in a no-frills, two-star, self-catering apartment, guests who want full-service five-star hotel bling, and everyone in between.“Straight away it connects you to people you then bump into at dinner, or around the resort. Or at the fetish party”
“Yeah, there are way more men than women,” says Street. “But it’s amazingly inclusive. Kevin and the team are working pretty hard at making the event welcoming to women, who traditionally haven’t been targeted by big LGBTQ+ events the way gay men are. This year women have their own dedicated website that shows what the week looks like from a female point of view. I have straight friends who’ve come too, loved it, and will definitely be back.”“Abby OMG deserves a special mention for some honey badger-fierce voguing in a metallic, Barbarella cage-dress on the poky, low-ceilinged stage”
“After the first year, we had a meeting with 40 local business owners to discuss whether we wanted to host the event again. 100 percent said ‘Yes, of course’.” No doubt, it does no harm that a table of EGSW guests typically drops between two or three times a regular table spend. “Good customers? Absolutely,” says Giacometti.She says she and colleagues felt personally outraged by the attacks earlier in the week. “We quickly identified the group responsible and the police did all they could very quickly.”The communal horror at the attacks is palpable in the resort. Business owners rush to commiserate and reassure guests of their welcome and support, and one young resort worker, after a heroically vodka-detuned version of Crash Test Dummies’ Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm at karaoke night, makes an impassioned, impromptu speech in defence of his “brothers and sisters who have brought so much joy to Les Menuires”.“Where else do you get five drag queens in full make-up ruling the room from floating inflatable unicorns?”