Air + Style brought together some of the world’s best winter athletes and musicians together for one weekend to celebrate music, culture, art and sports. 

Music and sports fans flocked to the Rose Bowl for a weekend of snow and music, something that hasn’t been done before, especially in Southern California. Though unexpected weather issues dampened the grounds, most festival performers charged on to put on exciting shows for festival goers.

SPORTS:

Athletes from all over the world flew in to compete at Air + Style this past weekend in Pasadena. It took hundreds of hours of planning and building to construct the 16 story jump in the middle of Los Angeles, where it has not and will never snow. That alone was a daunting feat, and bringing 32 athletes from all over the world to compete was another feat achieved by the extraordinary festival producers.

There were three rounds of qualifying rounds on Saturday, with the finals ending at night. Yuki Kadono, 18, won the overall event as the youngest competitor at the event. He landed clean throughout most of the day and performed gravity defying turns in the air, stunning many young snowboard fanatics. Along with Yuko, Sebastien Toutant, who is an Olympian and X Games medalist, did a stellar job as well, coming in second at the event. Air + Style tour champion Stale Sandbech were among those receiving hours on Saturday, placing third at the event. 

Skiers competed on Sunday; however, due to unforeseen weather conditions, only one round of competing took place, and results were calculated based on the single round. 

READ MORE: Catfish And The Bottlemen: Show Review 

MUSIC:

On Saturday, the event kicked off with a performance from Bad Things, whose guitarist is legendary snowboarder Shaun White, who is the person responsible for bringing the festival to Los Angeles. Following this, Phantogram took the stage with their lo-fi hits and put the crowd in a good mood in time for the day’s headliners. 

In the evening, Diplo took the stage, blasting out hit after hit that had the entire crowd dancing. Post-Diplo, some indie fans scurried to the Flood Magazine stage to watch indie darlings Portugal, The Man jam out before the night’s headliner. Around 7:30, Kendrick Lamar took the stage and churned out hit after hit for the audience. By the time his set started, the field was packed in to see the Los Angeles native deliver his set. Even though Lamar was arguably the biggest artist on the bill, his set was mildly disappointing, which was shocking to everyone at the festival. He dragged through the set list, playing hits like "Fuckin' Problems" and "m.A.A.d city" (three times, in fact) but often let the audience handle the words for him while he mumbled through some verses. Lamar tried to get the volume turned up for his set, but unfortunately things remained all too soft for the rapper, who said that he'd be back and ran off stage with 40 minutes to go in his set. Lamar never returned to finish his set. 

Though Saturday was blessed with charming California weather, Mother Nature decided to gift us with lots and lots of rain to end that drought that we’ve all been complaining about. Bad timing, sure, but the music acts championed on. 

Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros walked out to a crowd of umbrellas just as the rain started to pour, but Alex Ebert and the band were unfazed by a little rain. Ebert frolicked around the stage, running into the rain and immediately set the tone for the day. The Flaming Lips, who followed Edward Sharpe’s set shortly after, faced technical difficulties due to the rain but nevertheless kept up the bubbly attitudes despite a continuously gloomy day. Though the ski finals were cancelled due to hazardous weather conditions, many stuck around to watch Steve Aoki DJ the night away and close Air + Style on a particularly rainy Sunday.

If Shaun White decides to give this event another go, perhaps it would require better planning, location and weather. While there were fun moments, parts of the festival left the audience wanting more. It would be interesting to see what Air + Style would be like if mother nature was on our side. 

Reach Music Editor Joyce Jude Lee here.