The 2026-27 FIS Park & Pipe season will begin with the brand-new AIRDRENALINE Innsbruck Big Air World Cup on November 26-28. | Credit: International Ski and Snowboard Federation
From 2021 to 2024, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) Park & Pipe World Cup season began with the fan-favorite Big Air Chur World Cup in Switzerland. Its festival atmosphere, with live music and elite skiing and snowboarding, drew hordes of crowds, with over 20,000 spectators flocking to the event in 2024. Unfortunately, despite the crowds, the event was permanently canceled due to financial deficits after the 2024 event. The 2025-26 Park & Pipe season started without a festival-style big air event, but this season, a big air World Cup kickoff festival is returning in a new fashion at a historic location.
FIS recently announced that the 2026-27 Park & Pipe World Cup season will begin with its new AIRDRENALINE Innsbruck Big Air World Cup, held just minutes outside downtown Innsbruck, Austria. Taking place at the legendary Bergisel Ski Jump from November 26-28, the event will feature live music and other urban culture activities to celebrate the beginning of the freeskiing and snowboarding season.
Around 160 athletes will compete at the event with the hopes of starting off their World Cup season strong. The qualification round for both freeskiing and snowboarding will take place on November 26. The party and music begin alongside the freeskiing finals on November 27. The competition wraps up with the snowboard finals, held on November 28.
In big air events, athletes take off from massive jumps and attempt to complete as many spins and flips as they can. Big air competitions use a three-run format where their two highest scores from two different tricks count toward their final total.
Like the skiing and snowboarding, the music lineup for the event is also top-tier, featuring prominent German-language hip-hop artists. November 27 will be headlined by K.I.Z, with SSIO as the opener. Bonez MC & RAF Camora will take the stage on November 28, bringing record-setting German hip-hop chart artists to the Austrian city.
The AIRDRENALINE Big Air World Cup offers skiing and snowboarding fans the unique opportunity to watch an event in a city atmosphere. Taking place at the historic Bergisel Ski Jump on the southern edge of Innsbruck, spectators can enjoy the event without having to take a trip into the mountains. The ski jump is deeply connected to the city’s history and culture, having hosted events for two Winter Olympic Games (1964 and 1976). It features a stadium with a capacity of 26,000, and views from the top of the jump offer a sweeping 360-degree vista of the city of Innsbruck and the nearby Nordkette mountain range.
The event also marks the first FIS Park & Pipe event held in Innsbruck. Innsbruck has traditionally been the home to ski jumping World Cups, but bringing a new skiing and snowboarding discipline to the city gives its fans another way to enjoy winter sports. AIRDRENALINE event consultant Andrew Hourmont even helped invent the big air discipline in Innsbruck in 1994, and bringing the discipline back to its home for a World Cup event means the return of another part of its skiing and snowboarding culture.
“Innsbruck…is considered the pulsating heart of the European snowboarding and freeskiing scene – here the foundation for this culture was laid, and this is where we want to continue history,” President of Live Nation Brand Partnership & Media GSA Lars-Oliver Vogt said in FIS’s announcement. “The Bergisel offers an extraordinary stage for this – internationally known and at the same time deeply connected to Innsbruck.”
The combination of music, hip-hop, and freeskiing and snowboarding also reflects the culture and community of the two sports. Unlike traditional sporting events that are often defined by their tense energy, the AIRDRENALINE Big Air World Cup brings more of a festival energy with skiing and snowboarding at the center. Athletes, artists, and fans all come together to celebrate the start of the World Cup season, and the event creates an atmosphere that focuses just as much on Tyrolean culture as it does competitive sports.
“The combination of snowboarding, freeskiing, music and urban culture fits perfectly with our ambition to create unforgettable and emotional moments,” Vogt said. “And if there is one place in the world where a Big Air event belongs, it is Innsbruck and thus also the Bergisel.”
Following the 2026-27 season, the event will return the following year. “Conceived as a recurring event format, the AIRDRENALINE is slated to continue for the 2027-28 World Cup season,” FIS wrote.
Fans interested in attending the event can purchase day tickets for November 27 for €79 ($92) and for November 28 for €89 ($104). Two-day tickets are also available for €139 ($162). In addition, FIS will offer a limited, discounted ticket offer for students, trainees, and pupils. Tickets will be available for purchase from August 28, 2026, at 12:00 noon CET.
Fans who cannot attend the event can stream it live. More details on how to stream will be available on the FIS website.
The view of the Bergisel Ski Jump from downtown Innsbruck. | Credit: Shahin Farajov Facebook