From Parking Lot to Main Stage: The Northeast Ski Festivals That Define the Season

There’s a point every winter where skiing and riding stop being just about getting laps in.

The music gets louder. The parking lots turn into tailgates. People show up in costumes they definitely didn’t ski in all season. Someone’s grilling. Someone’s yelling. Someone’s sending it way harder than they probably should.

That’s ski festival season in the Northeast — and it’s hands down one of the best parts of winter.

These weekends turn normal mountain days into full-blown experiences. They’re less about vertical and more about community. Less about conditions and more about showing up. If you know, you know.

Here are a few festivals that really define the season for us.

Subaru WinterFest at Killington Resort

January 30 – February 1, 2026

Subaru WinterFest at Killington feels like the most natural crossover of ski culture and brand culture there is.

It’s a free event with a stage and vendor area set up at the K1 base area, and Subaru owners get some extra swag and VIP treatment — which honestly isn’t hard to pull off when the parking lots already look like a used Subaru dealership.

Killington really shines during this one because the events expand well beyond the base area. Definitely get out on the hill and venture over to the Jerk Shack in the Needles Eye area for live music mid-day. It’s one of those spots where you stop “just for a minute” and suddenly it’s an hour later.

Après options are stacked too. The Access Road has everything from the Pickle Barrel to the Wobbly Barn. Most shows are ticketed, so plan ahead, but locals know that “old people’s happy hour” usually comes with a small cover charge and a guaranteed good time at both spots.

WinterFest feels less like one main event and more like the entire mountain deciding to have fun all at once.

Learn More about the Subaru Winterfest

Mountainfest at Montage Mountain

March 6–7, 2026

Mountainfest honestly surprised us — in the best way possible.

Held at Montage Mountain in Scranton, PA, this weekend combines Preston’s Cardboard Classic with a music festival, and somehow the Cardboard Classic completely steals the show.

We attended last year and were blown away by the creativity and scale. Teams build full-on sculptures out of cardboard and send them down the slope to see who can make it to the bottom intact. Emphasis on try.

Friday’s Cardboard Classic is free for attendees and an absolute blast. I’ve never seen so many Carhartts and Marlboro cigarettes in one place in my life. The crowd is rowdy, loud, and fully invested — cheering on absolute maniacs hurling themselves downhill on cardboard creations that clearly took weeks to build.

Saturday shifts into music festival mode, with GA tickets around $42, but the whole base area feels alive all weekend. Vendors are set up selling food, drinks, apparel, and everything in between, so make sure you actually walk around and check it all out.

Also worth saying: the skiing is legit. For a Pennsylvania resort, Montage holds its own — good terrain, no lift lines, and great conditions when we were there. The whole weekend wraps with a fireworks show, which somehow feels perfectly on brand.

Learn more about the Montage Mountainfest

Homesick at Stratton Mountain

March 20–22, 2026

Homesick is special.

It started in 2023 out of East Street Archives — a book of 35mm photos shot by Gary Land that captured East Coast snowboard culture in the 1990s. The book dropped in 2022 and immediately struck a nerve. It wasn’t polished. It was real. And it reminded a lot of us why we fell in love with snowboarding in the first place.

Taking that energy and bringing it to Stratton — the birthplace of snowboarding — just makes sense.

Homesick is about community and history, but it’s not stuck in the past. The weekend is packed with events like downhill slalom, halfpipe, and rail jams, but the real draw is the people. Everyone’s there for the same reason, and you feel it immediately.

Stratton is also perfectly set up for something like this. The village base area keeps everything close and intimate. You ski, you ride, you wander, and once après starts, it all blends together. It feels like a reunion more than a festival — familiar faces, new faces, and zero pressure to be anything other than exactly who you are.

Learn more about Homesick

Reggaefest at Mount Snow

March 20–22, 2026

Reggaefest is the other side of that same weekend — and the energy could not be more different.

It’s a free, three-day reggae music festival that lines up perfectly with spring skiing at Mount Snow. You’ll be met with people in full costume, classic East Coast spring conditions, and a crowd that’s very clearly there to have a good time.

On-snow events like the Sink or Skim pond skim and the Duct Tape Derby keep things loose and chaotic, exactly how spring skiing should be. You get your laps in, then suddenly you’re standing at the base watching someone attempt to skim water in jeans while a crowd loses their mind.

Après doesn’t stop when the lifts do either. Be on the lookout for additional shows at the Snow Barn — because if there’s one thing Reggaefest does well, it’s keeping the party going.

It’s loud, it’s sloppy, and it’s everything we love about East Coast spring.

Learn more about Reggaefest

These festivals are why winter feels bigger than just snow.

They’re where you end up talking to someone you just met like you’ve known them for years. Where the skiing is almost secondary to what’s happening around it. Where everyone’s cold, smiling, and fully bought in.

They’re chaotic. They’re imperfect. They’re very Northeast.

And they’re exactly why we keep showing up.

Do what you love. Do it forever.