Winter Festival still at crossroads

The Prince Albert Winter Festival might still be facing a grim future as not enough volunteers showed up to the annual general meeting on Monday. 

Darrel Prokopie, president of the festival, said he was expecting more people at the meeting.  However,   the ultimate decision was made to hold another meeting in one week. 

“Everybody’s going to go out there, do a little bit of recruiting … and hopefully get a good crowd out here next Monday that some sort of direction will be settled upon,” Prokopie said. 

The meeting had 19 people show up, which is far from enough to run the Winter Festival. 

“We need at least twice that to come on out and take ownership of the Prince Albert Winter Festival if this event is to continue down the road,” Prokopie said.

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Prokopie said as much as they need volunteers to help take tickets and sell buttons during the festival, the most essential thing right now is someone who will commit from now until the end of March.

“It’s volunteers that are hand- on and people that will see things through,” he said.

Prokopie said although he is not returning as president of the festival, he is still passionate about it. 

“If this thing goes away, it’ll be a very sad day here in Prince Albert,” he said. “I’ll do what I can to ensure that doesn’t happen.”

Mayor Greg Dionne said he hopes the festival will continue. 

“It’s our biggest celebration in Western Canada when it comes to winter festivals,” he said. “It’s a big economic driver for our city.”

The next meeting will take place at the Margo Fournier Center at 7 p.m. on Nov. 17.  Prokopie said he hopes to see a lot of people out to support the festival.

“There’s a lot of room for discussion, a lot of room for talk and a lot of room to perhaps even … wish and dream,” he said.

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