Regina Frost festival to be bigger and better in 2024, committee says

The committee for the Regina Frost winter festival is hoping that 2024’s event will be bigger and better.

All four hubs, which are the Regina Exhibition Association Ltd (REAL) district, the Regina Downtown Business Improvement District (RBID), the Warehouse district, and the Wascana district, will be trying new things to increase attendance for 2024, organizers said.

Judith Veresuk, the executive director for the RBID, is part of the Frost committee and is in charge of programming the downtown hub. She said organizers have invested heavily in additional programming that’s going to be new, different and interactive for the public.

“We’ve partnered with new organizations as well as some of our older organizations like the Special Olympics (Regina), the Design Council of Saskatchewan. Some of our new partners include the Comeback Society, the Sports Hall of Fame and the Regina Open Doors Society,” Veresuk said.

“More organizations have approached us this year than have in the past. So, we’ve willingly embraced that and we’re looking forward to welcoming the entire city to our neck of the woods.”

Veresuk said the Frost Regina downtown hub saw over 16,000 folks last year, but organizers are hoping that with their efforts in branching out to the local businesses and partners, the number for 2024 will increase.

“We’re having some warming stations at the Sask. Sports Hall of Fame where we’ll have some Frost programming over at the Cornwall Centre,” she said. “One of the new introductions this year is the Frost Film series over at the RPL Central Library Film Theatre, which will be showing movies throughout the week.”

Regina Mayor Sandra Masters says the winter festival is a way to bring the community together and to connect everyone.

“I think what we saw over the first two years was kind of building the audience and people having fun,” she said. “What you’ll see is a lot of families that are new Canadians. And so, it’s a way for them to come out to experience the joy of winter.”

In 2023, Frost Regina saw over 88,000 people at all four hubs. Masters hopes to top that number to 100,000 visitors in 2024.

Frost Regina runs from Jan. 26, 2024, to Feb. 4, 2024.

0:45 Regina’s annual downtown Frost Festival kicks of Tuesday