A Lovely Day in Innsbruck

Carmen. Innsbruck Winter Dance Festival 2026 Premiere. Picture: Ski Paradise

One of the main reasons that led us to establish Ski Paradise's base camp in a small village near Innsbruck was the vast opportunities the city and its mountains offer us for skiing, along with its vibrant cultural life.

The City of Innsbruck offers locals and visitors a unique mix of urban flair and an alpine lifestyle seldom seen elsewhere. The Capital of the Alps is the gateway to the mountains. Only in Innsbruck can you go from the city center to enjoy the winter in the mountains in 20 minutes.

Innsbruck is home to over 130,000 residents, with about 30,000 being students, many of whom are from abroad. So it's no surprise that the city is seen as "young, cool and modern". At first sight, the city's trendy and winter sports atmosphere is immediately apparent.

Innsbruck has so much to offer in addition to the ski slopes: unusual cultural events, a wide range of excellent shops, bars and cafés, restaurants, and a multitude of trendy pubs.

Start a day on the ski slopes and end it enjoying an evening in the city.

In Innsbruck, skiing feels like an urban experience due to the short distance to the mountains. More than anywhere else in the world, Innsbruck offers the urban atmosphere of a city, but in the shadow of a mountainous landscape. If you want to transform your ski holiday into something extra special, you can combine the best of both worlds at Innsbruck's Ski Paradise.

In the morning, we head up to Patscherkofel, Innsbruck’s "local mountain", where the Winter Olympic Games were hosted in 1964 and 1976. In Patscherkofel, there is the slope where Franz Klammer wrote one of the most brilliant pages on Alpine Skiing in the Winter Games history when he won the gold medal in the downhill for Austria on February 5th, 1976.

Patscherkofel is Innsbruck's Ski Paradise in the south, easy to recognize from its rounded shape and the prominent radio mast on its peak. Innsbruck locals appreciate the resort's proximity to the city, which is just 6,5 km away. Is easy to reach with the Free Ski Bus and the city bus line J.

The new Patscherkofelbahn 10-person monocable gondola has been in operation since December 2017. From the bottom station (1,010 m.), you will reach the mountain station (1,965 m) quickly and easily in 9 minutes.

Maria Theresien Street, Innsbruck. Picture: Ski Paradise

In the afternoon, we enjoy a walk through the historic Old Town, the "epicenter" of Innsbruck, with the Imperial Palace, the city's famous galleries, the Golden Roof, the cathedral on Domplatz Square, and Maria Theresien Street.

Herzog-Friedrich-Straße and the Golden Roof. Innsbruck. Picture: Ski Paradise

We rounded up our day in Innsbruck by experiencing an emotion-filled dance theater at the Congress Center Innsbruck.

After the success of the inaugural edition, the Innsbruck Winter Dance Festival is back, and on February 18th, we attended the premiere of Carmen.

Enrique Gasa Valga reinterprets one of the most famous characters in world literature and opera history. Passion, drama, and expressive choreography merge to create an intense dance experience that tells the story of Carmen, the icon of freedom, in a modern way. For this production, Gasa Valga is collaborating with the Spanish La Factoria de Dansa for the first time, with two dancers from the company completing his ensemble.

With the premiere of Carmen, Enrique Gasa Valga and the Limonada Dance Company present a stunning revival of Carmen. With this work, Enrique Gasa Valga explores one of the most fascinating female figures in world literature and operatic history – an icon of freedom, sensuality, and radical self-determination. Based on Georges Bizet's world-famous opera, a visually powerful and emotionally charged dance production unfolds, blurring the lines between ballet, theater, and intense physicality. Bizet's captivating music – full of passion, drama, and Spanish color – forms the musical foundation for a modern, poetic interpretation of the classic. A woman who refuses to yield: Gasa Valga portrays Carmen as a multifaceted, contradictory personality: independent, vulnerable, and uncompromising. She is not a classic heroine – she is a woman who lives by her own rules and pays the ultimate price for it.

At the heart of the story is the self-assured factory worker Carmen, who captivates the young soldier Don José. His fiancée Micaela senses the threat, but Don José succumbs to Carmen's allure. Passion turns to obsession, jealousy to violence. When Carmen finally turns to the celebrated bullfighter Escamillo, the situation inevitably escalates. Love, possessiveness, and the yearning for freedom clash – with tragic consequences.

"The Innsbruck Winter Dance Festival enriches our city’s traditionally sports-oriented event calendar with a cultural highlight of international stature. In total, we support 300 events to invigorate our region and create reasons to travel. The Innsbruck Winter Dance Festival is intended to provide a strong impulse during a period of lower occupancy, while the positive response in Spain contributes to the necessary internationalization of our source markets," explains Peter Paul Mölk, Chairman of Innsbruck Tourism.

With a top-class cast and a perfectly coordinated ensemble, the premiere was an unforgettable experience.

A wonderful day full of lifelong memories!!!

PS: On February 26, 2026, the festival continues with the world premiere of Saving Salvador – A Tribute to Dalí. Following successful productions such as ROMY, Der Fall Wagner, and Viva la Vida, the artistic director now turns to one of the most dazzling and controversial figures of the 20th century: Salvador Dalí.