BY: TED BARNABY
Since 2012, Monte Piana, Italy has been the meeting grounds for highlining thrill-seekers everywhere, resulting in one of the world’s most unique festivals: the International Highline Meeting.
As you may have noticed from your local parks this passing summer, slacklining has become an increasingly popular sport amongst hippies, action-sports advocates and free spirits everywhere.
When a slackline is strung between two cliffs, skyscrapers or other objects of gut-dropping height, it then becomes referred to as “highlining”— slacklining’s much cooler and highly envied older brother
Though the premise is the same, the combination of high-winds, fear and adrenaline makes it considerably more difficult.
The festival’s location, high in the Italian Alps, has been established as the perfect highlining location. The two cliffs are at a perfect distance from one another, and the view spans a majestic mountain range of jagged cliff faces, curving rivers and thick green forest.
After setting up their lines, the slackers (festival participants) produce a neat line of hammocks in tight succession between the two cliffs. Looking at the pictures, one can’t help but wonder: how did they get all that gear out on the line in the first place—and how do they get it down?
Although many slackers have been known to make the thousand foot crossing completely gear-free, most participants use a harness to attach themselves to the main line using a cord with a clip on the end.
The festival has more than just hammocks, though. Atop the cliff, there is a kitchen and bar, music, jam sessions, yoga, and even paraglide flight workshops.
All in all, the festival sounds like a healthy combination between ultra-chilling and blood-curdling fear. That, and I can’t help but imagine those hammocks to be the absolute perfect place to smoke a joint.
Sources: trendland.com, visualnews.com
