More than five years ago, the first "NoTomorrow" Party launched in St. Moritz to combat the dying nightlife of the upper Engadin. With a "full" house of 140 guests, the party was a success, and the second issue followed shortly after.
The dream to expand our parties through Switzerland quickly came apparent. Said – done: Picas Samedan, Cult Scuol, Kulturhaus Chur, Club Q Zürich, Flöesserplatz Aarau, Loucy Chur, Härterei Zürich, Mäx Zürich, Moon Basel.
The focus on combating the dying Engadin nightlife was quickly lost in expanding over Switzerland, and SunIce Festival takes this thought back to the roots.
The idea to create a higher festival experience on a national level, to bring locals and people from all places together "on top of the world" was born in summer 2018, and has since crystalized into SunIce Festival – a lifestyle experience.
The marketing campaign for the planned premiere in March 2020 was a massive success and reached a large majority of Switzerland in one way or another.
Just two weeks before the long-awaited premiere of SunIce Festival, the federal council announced first measures to contain the then still new and unknown coronavirus. SunIce Festival, affected by these measures, was forced to postpone its launch into spring 2021.
Against all odds and expectations, the coronavirus still had the event screne tight in its grip, even a year after. With great disappointment, SunIce was once again required to postpone its launch to April 2022.
Despite the second postponement, SunIce was all but asleep. Instead of a festival, SunIce launched the “SunIce Ambassador Contest”. 128 Micro-Influencers fought for Switzerland’s most desired contest, generating over 3 Million votes over 2 months. The Ambassador Contest ended with an unforgettable weekend in St. Moritz itself, where Joya Steiner was crowned the new face of SunIce.
With vaccinations and declining Covid-19 cases, limited events were possible again in Summer 2021. SunIce launched its first physical event since 2 years with the year’s first Road to SunIce party. The event, held on July 23 2021 at Secret Island in Zürich signified a definite recovery from the claws of the pandemic and laid the carpet for a successful SunIce Season.
For the third time, SunIce launched its third iteration for the festival in the coming year. The launch was still baffled by uncertainty, but increasing immunity and reopenings of many events led our hopes to fly high. By the time April came, Covid-19 was already almost forgotten in everyday life and SunIce was well on track to finally open its doors.
On 1 April 2022, at 12.06 pm, SunIce Festival opened its gates to its guests. The next 72 hours would shape Swiss festival culture and the most amazing memories for the whole team involved, not to mention the guests of SunIce Festival. Highlights such as opening the village, Alan Walker's live set, the spontaneous afterparty on Saturday and the extension on Sunday afternoon will always stay with us.
After those 72 hours, it was all over. SunIce Festival had brought 12000 people to the top of the world to experience the world's best EDM and Techno in an all-new lifestyle format, and sent them home with memories never to be forgotten. After 4 years in the works, SunIce Festival had finally happened, and the SunIce team was left with the biggest gifts of all: Guests returning home with unique memories to spread the word, and a satisfaction nothing material could ever give.
After getting a bit of a breather after the biggest moments in our lives, we are already hard at work to show you more of what SunIce can see. Tickets for SunIce 2023 in St. Moritz are already live and selling fast, along with our mid season summer events. We're also working on generally expanding and diversifying SunIce Festival, but let's not get too into it ;)
