LEONA LEWIS may have taken a rain check on my request for an interview in an outdoor hot tub, but the X-Factor winner took Ischgl by storm at the start of this season, headlining a gig at the Austrian ski resort and party town.

The 15,000 of us who huddled together in a snowy car park came nowhere near her Beijing Olympics closing ceremony audience in numbers, but we more than made up for it by swaying and singing our lungs out along to Bleeding Love, cups of gluhwein warming our gloved hands.

Ischgl puts on more than just a show. The resort attracts skiers and snowboarders by staging big-name, open-air rock concerts at the start and close of each season, with a third event in between.

Elton John, the Scissor Sisters and Rihanna were the main acts last season. In recent years they have been joined by the likes of Rod Stewart, Sting, Peter Gabriel, Bob Dylan, the Corrs, the Sugarbabes ... even Tina Turner.

The best and worst ski gadgets

Ski headcams, walkie talkies and boot odour eaters all gets the thumbs up - but it's a No to inflatable roofracks and GPS

• The get-fit gadget for snowboarders

How to save on the ski slopes

Have a great snowsports holiday without shelling out a fortune - you just have to know where to look

• Posh skiing on the cheap

Related Internet Links

• More ideas for ski, snowboard and wintersports holidays

Related Links

• O little French ski town of Morillon

“What's skiing got to do, got to do with it?” I can imagine the latter rasping. The answer is that, regardless of the concerts and the partying, Ischgl is one of the most overlooked and underrated ski resorts in the Alps - at least by the British, whose presence here is overwhelmed by crowds from nearby Bavaria.

In Ischgl I found a Tyrolean village with a medieval heart as lovely as Lech's, squeezed into the Paznaun valley between the crags and pyramid peaks of the Silvretta mountains, 90 minutes by road from Innsbruck.

The ski area is huge, more than 230km of groomed pistes served by heated gondolas and high-speed chairlifts with wind shields. I have never come across such a comfortable and efficient lift system. Better still, almost all of the skiing is above 2,000m, making for an exceptional snow record.

“There has been enough snow to open over the last weekend of November every season in the last 15 years and we usually close in early May,” claimed the tourism director, Andreas Steibl.

There were certainly piles of snow when, before revelling with Leona, I skied the pulse-quickening, black-graded descent from 2,864m Palinkof, before sweeping down the “Duty Free Run” to Samnaun over the Swiss border.

The following day I made fresh tracks in the pillowy powder that had fallen overnight, beside the 11km run that drops almost 1,500 vertical metres from the icy heights of Greitspitz.

This run ends virtually at the door of Trofana Alm bar, where from 4.30pm onwards, hundreds of people - old and young - pack in tighter than you would believe possible and go completely bonkers, bellowing along to thumping German electro-folk, while stomping on table tops in ski boots, gulping steins of beer and embracing friends and strangers alike.

Later, the afternoon après scene segues into high-octane nightlife, ranging from full-on blingy nightclubs playing Euro-trash to pole-dancing joints that verge on the seedy.

But you can take or leave any of that. The village, the scenery and the skiing are all fabulous. So is the choice of hotels (don't expect chalets or self-catering), and restaurants, both on the mountain and in town.

In fact, I have my eye on returning here for a family skiing holiday. Alternative evening diversions include a superb floodlit, 7km toboggan run; or mellow, quieter bars such as Kiwi, where it is possible to hold a conversation without yelling.

I found that a serene, late-night soak in the outdoor hot tub was a high point, although the only stars I had for company were the ones sparkling in the heavens.

NEED TO KNOW

Concerts April 13 (Easter Monday) and May 2 are the dates of this season's remaining concerts to be staged on the slopes, free for anyone with a lift pass. Names of the artists are yet to be announced. Keep an eye on www.ischgl.com.

Where to Stay Four-star Hotel Elisabeth is opposite the main gondola and has a spa with pool, sauna and steam room; from £1,266pp for a week rising to £1,514pp for April 11 departures. Pick of the budget hotels is two-star Alpenrose; from £658pp, rising to £733pp for April 11 departures. Prices are for flights, transfers and half-board stays with Inghams (020 8780 4447, www.inghams.co.uk).

Where to Eat On the mountain: Vider Alp ((00 43 5444 20197) a cosy Alpine hut at 2,300m.

In the village Most accommodation is half board. If you splash out, make it the Michelin-starred Paznauer Stube in the Trofana Royal Hotel (00 43 5444 600, www.trofana.at)

Where to drink Trofana Alm has to be experienced to be believed; next door Romantik Hutt'n allegedly sells more champagne per square metre than any other bar in Austria; girls dance on the bar at Schatzi's at the Hotel Elisabeth - and that's at 7pm. Later, Pacha is a branch of the Ibiza-based namesake; Guxa is a quieter cigar and cocktail bar; Kiwi is the place for a relaxed drink.

Times recommends

• Bogus websites are conning hundreds out of their holidays
• The complete last minute holiday guide
• Croatia: the flashing blades of Korkcula