Winter festivals in Denare Beach and Creighton are both coming soon.
The Denare Beach Winter Festival will run from Feb. 25-27, the first major event of the winter months.
The first event of the festival will be the village’s snow and ice sculpture contest - all entries will need to be ready by Feb. 23 for judging. Another early event will be the children’s colouring contest, which is open to all pre-K to Grade 3 kids. Entries can be picked up at the Denare Beach Village Office and must be returned, either to the office or to Creighton Community School, by Feb. 21.
Another annual festival tradition, the musher’s supper, will start at the Denareplex at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 25. The Denareplex will be the hub for festival activity Friday night, with kids games, animal calls and the ever-popular Turkey Curling World Championships all starting around 7 p.m. At 8 p.m., the Junior Trapper competition, open for kids ages 12-15, will start up, with other events coming along throughout the evening.
Starting Saturday at 8:30 a.m., other events will start up at the Denareplex, with the fireman’s pancake breakfast at 9 a.m. and children’s games, a penny parade, bingo and other events throughout the day. The family fishing derby will start at 11 a.m. Feb. 26 on the lake, with a $5 entry fee for kids and a $10 fee for adults. Holes will be pre-drilled for all participants and prizes will be up for grabs. The day will be capped off with a fireworks display at 6:30 p.m - the festival itself will be capped off with the snow drags event Feb. 27, with the races starting at 1 p.m. sharp.
Meanwhile, Flin Flon and Creighton’s main winter festival, the Bust the WInter Blues festival, is slated to make a comeback in early March. A smaller version of the traditional event is on the cards in the first weekend of next month, with most events to take place March 6.
Things are tentatively expected to begin with a fireworks display at the Creighton football and soccer field at the Oval of Dreams March 5, with other events taking place around the Creighton Community Centre the next day - a bonfire, street hockey game, family events, smooshing (races on large skis) and other festivities are part of the plans so far.
Events are still in planning stages and may be subject to change before the festival date. Planning for events, as of last week, was focused around Creighton as Manitoba health orders still would include some limits at the time of the events - most remaining health restrictions in the province are slated to be lifted either before or shortly after the scheduled dates.
