The sixth Altitude Festival takes place on March 18-22. The festival of Alpine comedy started in 2008 when Marcus Brigstocke decided to combine his day job with the family's snowboarding holiday and invited a few of his comedy mates to join him in performing in Méribel in France while skiing or snowboarding (some of them for the first time, which made for good comedy in itself). Latterly Andrew Maxwell has taken over producing the event, which has now moved across the Alps to Mayrhofen in Austria.
Among the strong line-up this year are John Bishop, Phill Jupitus, Brendon Burns, Maxwell and Brigstocke. German comic Michael Mittermeier makes his debut at the festival, but whether he'll perform in his mother tongue or English (or even both) he hasn't yet said. A further announcement about someone the organisers call “one of the world's top comedians” headlining will be made early next month.