Dorothée Fournier, Docteure en histoire du sport, Laboratoire Sens-UFRAPS, Labex ITEM

How can one understand the tourist trend in winter sports resorts to offer activities mixing sports and festive atmosphere? It aims to ensure the sustainability of these territories subordinated to the leisure economy. This is not new; however, partying is no longer an “atmosphere” related to skiing but an offer in-itself. Should the secondary position attributed to skiing be read as an adaptive solution to climate change? The facilities reflect a search for sensation and fun experiences, like the Wetterleuchten festival (Austria), which brings together high mountains skiing and partying. The purpose of our communication is to question this hybridity between sports and celebration as an alternative strategy to skiing. We will measure the evolution of the different aspects of leisure practice from a longer historical perspective and using a special territory for support. In France, located southeast of Grenoble, Oisans, and especially the Alpe d’Huez, partly forged its fame on sports events: bobsleigh events of the 1951 World Championships, the 1968 Olympic Games, and the almost yearly unfolding of the “Tour de France” since 1976. In 2019, the territory becomes the winter theatre of a world-renowned Belgian electronic music festival: Tomorrowland. During this event, 25,000 festival-goers gather together for a week; it is a young and international clientele with high purchasing power. Tomorrowland winter materializes new considerations of space as well as new cultural aspirations, urging people to understand the contradiction between the desire for recreational excesses (hubris) and the search for naturalness. We will analyze the sociocultural heritage of events through a historical reading. We will also mobilize different types of sources (local newspapers, municipal council reports, stakeholder interviews) to take into account the evolution of representations. However, the existence of Tomorrowland winter raises a problem: the eviction of certain population groups (short-term vacationers are often preferred to secondary residents). Mountain territories have always been able to adapt, and we are going to discover their capacity to change in the light of new constraints.

To see further :
By Dorothée Fournier

Recreational sports practice in the mountains within territorial reconfigurations, an innovation ?
Third International winter shool: Innovation and Mountain territories, Labex Item (Laboratoire d'Excellence Innovation et Territoires de montagne), Apr 2018, Monte Carasso, Switzerland

De quelques fonds photographiques autour des stations de ski. Le rôle de l'image dans la construction d'un territoire de sports et de loisirs
Le paysage (in)attendu. Les pratiques photographiques contemporaines de la montagne, LARHRA - Lucie Goujard, Oct 2018, Grenoble, France

La glisse réinventée". La construction d'un territoire de sports et de loisirs : l'Oisans des années 1960 à nos jours
Nature et récréation, 2018, Transition récréative et présence au monde, pp.99-106.

L'héritage social et l'impact social des pratiques et des événements sportifs.
Héritage sportif et dynamique patrimoniale. International Conference. 18e Carrefours d'Histoire du sport de la Société Française d'Histoire du Sport. 22th Conference of the European Committee for Sports History, SFHS, CESH, Oct 2018, Bordeaux, France

Les pratiques de sport et de loisirs en montagne, approche par les territoires
Première Université d'Hiver Internationale du Labex ITEM, Jan 2014, Sarcenas, France 

Visions et construction d’un territoire, l’Oisans au cours des années 1960
Seconde université d'hiver du Labex ITEM, Labex ITEM, Jan 2016, Autrans, France 

Outlooks and construction of a territory. Oisans during the 1960's
Deuxième Université Internationale d'hiver, LabEx ITEM, Jan 2016, Autrans, France 

La carte est le territoire. Trajectoire du massif de l’Oisans xixe-xxie siècles
La montagne, territoire d'innovation, LabEx ITEM (Innovation et Territoires de montagne) Jan 2017, Grenoble, France 

Le rôle du sport dans la structuration de l'Oisans de 1960 à nos jours
Développement du sport et dynamique des territoires : Expériences internationales comparées, Institut Royal de Formation des Cadres; Association Francophone de Recherche sur les Activités Physiques et Sportives, Apr 2018, Salé, Maroc 

From Darkness to Deep Blue, Ailefroide: the Mountain as a Reflection to Existence
Revue de Géographie Alpine / Journal of Alpine Research, Association pour la diffusion de la recherche alpine, 2018, Montagnes en fiction

Réinventer un territoire ? Processus d'implantation et de développement du snowboard en Oisans
Revue de Géographie Alpine / Journal of Alpine Research, Association pour la diffusion de la recherche alpine, 2019, Varia,