A lover of speeding down mountains and also of music festivals, I was incredibly excited to be able to merge my passions, at Horizon Festival: Skiing, great DJ's, cheap beer - what's not to love!

A completely undiscovered ski domain for me, my girlfriend Ellen and I travelled via Thessaloniki, Greece to the festival. For someone that hates the admin that comes with a road trip, the festival website made life easy - set out extremely well, with all the information clear to understand. The same however, can’t be said for Rental Cars, watch out! When we arrived we found out that our hire car didn't have adequate insurance to cross the border, so at 10pm on the Friday we had to make alternative arrangements. Big tick for Horizon, one of their transfer buses had space and so we managed to jump on that which took us pretty much to our hotel. The transfer itself took about 4.5 hours, but the bus was comfy and the ticket was great value.

Photo by Ross Silcocks - Entirety Labs

Only having the weekend for the festival (it actually goes the whole week) we woke up early on the Saturday, wanting to fit in a full days skiing as well as wanting to visit all of the festivals venues. We rented our kit and headed up on the rather long gondola up to the bottom of the ski area. We shared the ride with a stag group who retold all the stories from their first night, though couldn’t remember the price of a pint….the sign of a good night I guess! The weather in Bansko itself was quite mild, and there was some concern as we ascended the mountain about the amount of snow, but once we arrived at the top, the conditions were fantastic. A lovely sunny day, and loads of fresh snow from earlier in the week - we couldn’t really have asked for more. With 75km of slopes, there is plenty to keep you interested, and the tree lined slopes were stunning. A variety of red and blue runs (although not many greens if you're a beginner) and fairly brand new lifts with rarely a queue, meant we got a great day skiing and could relax afterwards for a well deserved cider in one of the many on piste bars.

Photo by Ross Silcocks - Entirety Labs

After heading back down to the hotel (Royal Towers Hotel – basic but clean and very good value) to get changed and get stuck into the festival we went over to the Park Hotel to pick up our wristbands, which was about a 20 minute walk from the centre of town where most of the bars, venues and restaurants were. We had a sneak peak of the fantastic Gardenia venue, which is an underground club with a grand balcony and large seating area. We wanted to make sure we could fit in as many of the venues as possible, so we headed up to the two outdoor stages, firstly, to The Secret Hotel. What an incredible venue this is – a somewhat decrepit hotel, surrounded by trees, the team had put a lot of effort into the décor and props – and it really felt like a winter version of Shangri La at Glastonbury, albeit a lot smaller. The venue had a large sound system, outside bar, a posh burger van and its very own dancing actors on the balconies at the top of the hotel. We settled down there with a few beers by the fire and then proceeded to walk (there were also shuttle buses!) down to Mountain Creek which is the largest outdoor stage at the festival. The setting was incredible - a large wooden Tipi stage, with Tom Central playing some hip hop classics, made my afternoon. After some pretty generous servings of vodka, and having watched the sunset, the lights on the stage added to the spooky woodland surroundings. We jumped in a shuttle bus (with added rave lights of course) which took us back down into town and we headed for the welcome drinks at Queens Pub, a British themed bar and restaurant which was really good value for money and was absolutely buzzing with festival goers as a warm up venue. We grabbed some food and a shisha pipe and then made our way to Oxygen. Again, similar to The Secret Hotel, the festival team had put a massive effort into the décor, with Horizon festival logos scattered around the venue. We caught a bit of EXo before heading back down to Gardenia.

Photo by Ross Silcocks - Entirety Labs

Unfortunately, the heavens had opened which meant for a slightly soggy evening, so we jumped in a cab down to see Kink set. We quickly learnt that we should have been insisting on a metered fair, or agreed a price upfront as we were definitely paying over the odds for taxi journeys! The venue was really vibrant and we were bouncing along with the crowd for Kink set, in the company of a number of Gin and Tonics, and by 4am it was time to return back to the Royal Towers for a much needed rest, via a takeaway crepe stall obviously.

Following a lazy, slow Sunday morning (pretending it was nothing to do with the hangover and all to do with the rain), we headed up the cable car and was pleasantly surprised with the visibility, having thought it was going to be a total white out, it was actually not bad at all, and the tree lined runs which gave enough contrast to enjoy the slopes. We stopped for a pizza on the mountain (generally about £8 for a pizza and drink) before heading back to the hotel to pack up and head home.

Bansko itself is an interesting place and perfect for this festival, with many quirks. There has been some significant investment in the place, and there is still a lot of building work going on - watch this space! A brilliant weekend, and really wished we could have stayed longer. There had been a lot of thought put into the festival and everything seemed to run smoothly, which is credit to the organisers. I can imagine putting something on in another country with different languages and cultures can throw up some challenges, but they've nailed it. The festival has been growing over the last few years, and I can see why – both the festival and the venue are fantastic value for money, well delivered and eclectic.

Horizon - Bansko - we salute you.

Reviewer -  Alex Dixon