FROSTival set for return, but Winter Frolic will wait

Article content

The lineup for Fredericton’s FROSTival has been finalized, but a lack of snow on the ground means another winter event wait until February this time around.

Dozens of events are being planned for the 2024 Fredericton Capital Region FROSTival, taking place over two and a half weeks from Jan. 17 to Feb. 4. After two years of trying to pull it off around the same time, the Winter Frolic held by the New Brunswick Provincial Exhibition has been moved to Feb. 10 and 11 and Feb. 17 to 19.

NBEx executive director Jeff McCarthy said the Winter Frolic was bumped to two weekends around Family Day due to the amount of snow required to be compacted and trucked into the exhibition grounds on Smythe Street to build a snow maze and other attractions.

“We had to truck in so much snow to put Winter Frolic on in the past,” he said. “To make it happen during FROSTival, we have to have so much snow on the ground at Christmas to start compacting it and building the snow maze.

“The committee is still organizing Winter Frolic, but there isn’t enough snow early enough to reach the height and compactness we need. We’re doing it later, when we usually have enough snow to build it.”

Winter Frolic has previously been scheduled during FROSTival, although it’s a separate event. This year, it was delayed to February due to a lack of snow early in the winter. The 2022 event was cancelled due to concerns about COVID-19.

Winter Frolic usually features snow tubing, a snow maze, a dogsled track, hay wagon rides, food trucks, and hot beverages.

Had Monday’s rainfall been snow instead, McCarthy said, that may have given Winter Frolic organizers a head start on preparations, and improved the event’s chances of taking place during FROSTival. He said any snow on the ground or hauled in must be heavily compacted for the snow maze and tubing hill to be safe.

“Never in my life have I wished that rain would be snow,” he said. “But I wish we had a super white Christmas and were stockpiling all of our snow so we could get started even better on Winter Frolic.

“The team is busy planning everything and making some improvements this year. It’s previously been a highly successful and popular event. Just from last year’s numbers, we know we need to add more horses for the sleigh rides and more dogsled teams, and warming stations will be available outside.”

McCarthy said ticket details and the full schedule for Winter Frolic will be released at a later date.

FROSTival will get underway Jan. 17 with the five-day Shivering Songs Festival. It will also include film screenings, musical performances, markets, arts and crafts workshops, comedy shows, plenty of outdoor activities, the Dine Around Freddy promotion at local restaurants, distillery and brewery tours, a photo op at the large fiddle in Harvey Station, introductions to skiing and snowboarding at Crabbe Mountain, and several previously scheduled sports games.

The FROSTival schedule also includes such things as a soup-making course, bluegrass brunch, open mic night, sound therapy session, poetry reading and book launch with Poet Laureate Jordan Tretheway, trivia games, cosmic golf, zumba party, cross-country ski competition, family winter carnival, outdoor disc golf challenge, and a sliding party.

More artists were announced this week for Shivering Songs, including Wolf Castle + The Olympic Symphonium, Old Man Luedecke, Catherine Kennedy, Carlene, and Flacko Finesse.