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Don't miss Winterfest at the Lake this weekend

Winterfest (Jan. 29 – Feb. 1) has been a long-standing tradition.

It’s almost time once again for Christina Lake’s annual Winterfest. This year the organizers are bringing both the fire and the ice. That’s right, the latest edition of Winterfest will have a “Fire and Ice” theme and feature everything from ice sculpting to fire dancing and a whole lot in between.

“Winterfest (Jan. 29 – Feb. 1) has been a long-standing tradition to help get us through the winter months,” said Cindy Alblas, who is coordinating the event along with Lisa Smith. “We’re gearing up for a bigger event this year with some new events including the pasta dinner hosted by the Christina Lake Auxiliary to the Community Hall and the dance with a live band (Blue Crush). We’ve never had a dinner and dance before, so that’s new. We’re trying to keep the event going all day.”

Alblas said the event is aimed at all ages with some events geared towards adults and others geared to kids and families.

“We’re including the youth in a lot of our contests,” she said. “There will be a youth category for the chili cook-off and for the pie-making contest. We’re also including adults in some of our traditional kids games like minute-to-win-it. The children’s minute-to-win-it has always been exciting so now we’re going to have adult minute-to-win-it.”

Winterfest actually kicks off on Thursday (Jan. 29) with a youth talent show and open mic night at Lisa’s Bistro at the Christina Lake Welcome Centre.

On Friday, the always popular sno-pitch tournament begins. There is also youth and family ball hockey as well as movie and game night at the community hall that evening from 6-10 p.m.

Saturday festivities start at 8 a.m. with the pancake breakfast. Events go all day on Saturday with more sno-pitch, a ball hockey tournament for kids, chili cook-off, pie contest, longest icicle contest, minute-to-win-it and more.

The pasta dinner goes from 5-7 p.m. at the community hall. The Luminosity fire dancers perform after dinner followed by the Sno Ball adult dance from 7:30 - 12 midnight at the hall with live band Blue Crush.

Sunday starts with the traditional polar bear dip at the nature park at 12:30 p.m. After the dip, there will be sno-athlon with cross country skiing and snowshoeing, cribbage for prizes, and human dog sled races.

“We’re also having Owl Mountain Ranch come out Sunday with their miniature horses,” said Alblas. “We’ve also got fire and ice sculpting there. We’re actually going to have ice blocks there and artist Jim Harris. We’ll have hand-held torches for the kids. There actually going to be using torches to sculpt the ice. That’s going to be lots of fun.”

The event wraps up with a Super Bowl party at the Crow and Bear Pub for the adult crowd kicking off at 3:30 p.m.

Tickets for the Sno Ball are for sale at Thistle Pot Gifts in Grand Forks and at the Christina Lake Welcome Centre. For more information call 250-447-6161.