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Popularity of Winter Festival grows

Feb 23, 2015 | 6:36 PM

Having around a month to plan didn’t pose a problem for Prince Albert’s Winter Festival, bringing in even more people than last year.

“I’d say we were up probably up 50 per cent maybe more over last year,” Winter Festival president Barry Mihilewicz speculated. “I think the response was excellent.”

Mihilewicz said it’s hard to say what aided the most in increasing attendance numbers, but he says the venue played a big role.

“What we found here was that with…the concession inside and just the fact that you could go into the Alfred Jenkins Field House and warm up a bit I think…the cold was less of a deterrent,” he said.

Despite cold weather and “competing against $8 a month Netflix,” Mihilewicz said they always draw a crowd because the festival is a “celebration of winter,” and a way to “lift spirits” through the long months of the season.

A few activities that were crowd favourites, according to Mihilewicz, include the Children’s Carnival, Sled Dog Races, Gospel Show, and the Northern Spirits Show.

“One of the events for certain that was a huge hit was the Gospel Show. We had…three-times as many people there as we had last year,” he said. “We had the youth talent show this year…and it drew 280 people…on a Wednesday night.”

When asked what aspect fared better this year the indoor or outdoor events, Mihilewicz said he couldn’t decide.

“I’d say that overall the festival was a success and that we were pleased with a lot of the things that happened in both places but we also know there’s a lot of places we can improve,” he said.

One disappointment Mihilewicz pointed out was the smaller audience on Saturday night at the Country North Show.

“We did almost as many in the one night of the Classic [Country] Show [360 people] as we did for the two nights of the Country North Show [250 people on Friday and 200 on Saturday],” he said.

Expect change at next year’s festival

The new Winter Festival board members learned a lot over the weekend and are already planning for next year’s event.

Mihilewicz said the members are “so in love with the Winter Festival.”

“I’m so proud of everybody on the Winter Festival committee…they did excellent work,” he said. “As tired as you would expect us to be at this point, everybody is so enthusiastic and were talking about next year and how we can make it better, and what can we do to bring out more people.”

The first item on their agenda is to move the festival activities to the south-side of the Alfred Jenkins Field House, with help from the city, who would need to landscape that area before then.

“One thing that we’ve been talking about pretty much non-stop…is that we were on the north-side of the building where we had…a fair bit of wind and no sun, especially the King Trapper events. If we went to the south-side of the building we could have less wind and more sun,” he said.

It’s all about learning as you go and Mihilewicz said that is exactly what the committee is doing.

“You don’t know some of the stuff until you try it right and then you make the improvements, and I think there’s improvements to be made and next year’s going to be spectacular,” he said.

They have talked so far about going ahead with the 3-on-3 road hockey tournament that was cancelled this year, possibly having more Country Classic Shows, and making the snow sculpture event into a chance for local artists to showcase their skills.

“The snow sculpture for the past few years has been kind of a contest, you know, you pay $50 to enter and then the entry fees don’t even pay for you know the third place prize,” he said. “I’ve always questioned whether art should be judged.”

With funding from a grant Mihilewicz would like the festival to pay artists to sculpt the ice and then put those sculptures around the city prior to the festival at places such as the Prince Albert Tourism Centre.

The public has also made suggestions to Mihilewicz about bringing back the school poster contest and advertising the festival with a banner across Central Avenue.

The new committee is looking to keep the board “fresh and new,” so if you are interested in getting involved or volunteering you can email Mihilewicz. 

kbruch@panow.com

On Twitter: @KaylaBruch1