The festival is expected to attract more than 6000 spectators this week and a further 1600 competitors, organiser Geoff Hunt said yesterday.
The weekend's biggest attraction will be today's Super D enduro at the Queenstown Bike Park, in which several of the top riders will compete in the downhill/uphill race from the Ben Lomond forest.
The six-hour non-stop tag team event will be hotly contested between top New Zealand riders Cameron Cole, Sam Blekinsop and Conor McFarlane, as well as French rider Fabien Cousinie.
A little more on the light-hearted side is the half-day bike polo tournament - described as ''ice hockey on wheels'' - held at Remarkables Park. This follows a tournament in Timaru.
The festival runs until Sunday March 31 and will feature the Downhill Dirtmasters on Wednesday night and Thursday's Teva Slopestyle event, which last year attracted more than 3000 spectators to Queenstown's centre.
