pandemic
Police patrols instead of celebrity parties in Kitzbühel
Celebrity athletes like Aleksander Aamodt Kilde from Norway can also be found in Kitzbühel this year, but no celebrating representatives of the entertainment scene. Photo: Expa/Johann Groder/APA/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
What is a race weekend in Kitzbühel without Schwarzenegger, Gottschalk and DJ Ötzi? The posh ski resort had to do without glamor again this year.
The society show running during the traditional ski races in Kitzbühel has fallen victim to strict corona rules. In the posh winter sports resort, there were stricter restrictions than in the rest of Austria before and during the men’s World Cup competitions at the weekend.
As in the previous year, the parties that had lured stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Thomas Gottschalk and Uschi Glas to Tyrol before the pandemic took place. The organizers took it with composure. “We don’t complain about things that aren’t and can’t be,” said Maria Hauser from the “Stanglwirt”, where the annual Weißwurst party with around 2,500 guests usually takes place before the Hahnenkamm descent.
Such après-ski events are currently prohibited in Austria. In Kitzbühel, partying in the open air was also prohibited and an FFP2 mask requirement was imposed in the city center. Only 1000 spectators were admitted to the races. The police checked compliance with the rules “in a continuous loop”, as the authorities said. After all, the ski region is struggling with a seven-day incidence of around 3300 – that is almost twice as high as the nationwide value in Austria.
Schwarzenegger’s fundraising dinner is also canceled
The place where US series star Jack Dempsey (“Grey’s Anatomy”), singer DJ Ötzi and Verona Pooth were still hanging out in January 2020 seemed unusually quiet on this year’s race weekend.
The Hollywood star and former US politician Schwarzenegger wanted to organize a fundraising dinner for his environmental concerns in Kitzbühel despite the restrictions, Hauser told the German Press Agency. But out of concern for the Omikron variant, this also fell into the water.
It was a little more relaxed a week before the downhill and slalom races in Kitzbühel. An entrepreneur, known as a jury member from the Austrian version of the startup show “Höhle der Löwen”, was a guest at a crowded party and posted a video of it. After heavy criticism from politics and business, the operator of the affected bar announced that it would close until the end of the pandemic.
On Saturday, the celebratory mood in Kitzbühel finally disappeared, as the police confirmed. Although minor violations were found during controls in 44 bars, prohibited après-ski parties were not discovered.