Prince George life brings winter like clockwork. There is so much to do in the snow, on the ice, in the cold that it begs local residents to embrace the season like a wool sweater hugs a cozy body.
Get into the proper clothing and the outside elements turn into enjoyable conditions. Get into the proper activities and the winter months can be alive with entertainment. Winterfest is the centre of it all.
Two of the most prolific annual events of the year are the Coldsnap Music Festival by the P.G. Folkfest Society and the Francofun Festival by Le Cercle des Canadiens Francais. Both are powered by local volunteers. In between these two multi-day extravaganzas of cultural fun is Winterfest, in the heart of the season and in the heart of the city. It is produced each year by Downtown Prince George so the whole town can come together and chill out.
"I'm so excited to see the kids on the ice slide; that went over so well last year. And I can't wait to see the ice sculpting," said coordinator Alisha Rubadeau, outlining a couple of the highlights coming this year.
"It is now a repeat event, so people know what to expect, they have a sense of it, just like Downtown Summerfest. It's becoming a favourite already," said Heidi Martel, the event's chief planner. "Last year the weather was a force to be reckoned with. Mother Nature threw every possible curveball at us, and it was still awesome."
Fluctuations in the weather can't keep Prince George roadhockey down. There were players grabbing sticks the entire day at last year's downtown game, and this year Downtown Prince George has enlisted the help of the elite midget-aged Cariboo Cougars and the Junior-A Spruce Kings to bring some star power to the boot match, and you'll never once have to pull the nets aside for a car.
There will also be photos on the ice throne, snow painting with the Two Rivers Gallery, mini-rail rides through a tunnel thanks to the Railway & Forestry Museum, a vendor market at the Legion, the P.G. Farmers' Market will be open, DJ Ant will be spinning the tunes, plus the hands-on presence of the library, Exploration Place, the YMCA, a fatbike demo by Cycle Logic, food trucks, and some harvested Ness Lake ice and snow thanks to Viking Construction and the Hart Ski Hill's new snow machine (should the weather try any of its tricks), Forest Power Sports will have a static display area for their snow machines, Sunset Studios is providing snow yoga (would that be snowga, an all-P.G. new word?).
"We're celebrating the diversity of what our Prince George winter is," said Martel. "It's about participation; it's about families and friends and neighbours. We didn't want to try and create an event similar to Summerfest, because Prince George's summer is its own thing and so should that event stand on its own. Winterfest is about winter. We have so much of our local culture tied to winter, it isn't hard to have a special event that celebrates that. The hard part really is how to fit it all in."
World renowned snow and ice carver Peter Vogelaar will be a special guest of DPG at this year's Downtown Winterfest.
Vogelaar is a Canadian master of "ephemeral art" mediums like snow and sand, and he will be creating new temporary art just for the live Prince George audience during the Feb. 11 event in front of Prince George City Hall.
Vogelaar once swept the ice sculpting awards at the Carnaval de Quebec (it was 1997, and more Carnaval trophies would come in later years), won an award at the ice carving event at the Olympic Winter Games in Nagano (the first of several Winter Olympic experiences for him and his art), led the team that won the World Sand Sculpture Championships in 2003, plus earned many national and international commissions and exhibitions - a list that grows each year.
"We know we have something special here, with the way people in this city really do embrace winter and look forward to it, because of all the things you can do in winter that you can't do the rest of the year," said Rubadeau. "We found out through the Canada Winter Games that Prince George knows how to make winter work for us, not against us, and local people are proud of that and consider winter one of our strengths. It's a Downtown Prince George strength, the more this annual event comes together."
This year's event happens on Feb. 11 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Veterans' Plaza in front of City Hall.
