EDMONTON – What is usually one of the coldest months of the year has, instead, been feeling a lot more like spring time – and the warm temperatures are creating a number of firsts for winter festivals in our city.
“I’ve lived in Edmonton all my life and I’ve never seen such beautiful weather in January,” says Christy Morin, the artistic producer of the Deep Freeze festival on Alberta Avenue. “And Deep Freeze, as well, has never seen such balmy, sunny temperatures, so it’s a real treat.”
Morin remembers mountains of snow during last year’s festival, but this year, the record temperatures are bringing out huge crowds – often decked out in attire normally reserved for spring and summer.
“They’ve been able to come out and skate in sweaters and I’ve even seen a few guys wearing shorts even, so it’s quite hilarious. I never thought Deep freeze would take a fashion turn to shorts and tank tops.”
The mild conditions have also been attracting record crowds to Sir Winston Churchill Square, where up until mid-Feburary, the Metropolis Festival is offering a variety of winter activities indoors.
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“The beauty of having indoor facilities like this is you don’t have to do anything other than turn down the heat on our heating systems, so that’s a bonus because we don’t have to spend as much money on propane,” says the general manager of Events Edmonton, Giuseppe Albi.
The warm weather doesn’t come without its setbacks, though. It has some wishing Mother Nature would turn down the heat.
“The ice carving and snow carving – it has brought some challenges with the sun. The sun directly is something the snow carvers and ice carvers don’t want to see,” says Morin. “So we have to cover and tarp a lot of different pieces so it doesn’t melt and disappear.”
It’s a problem that has been especially frustrating for the organizers of the Ice on Whyte festival, which will run from January 12-22.
“We’ve put a lot of work in to what we’ve created and it’s a little disenheartening to see a lot of that melt, but we’re doing whatever we can to protect and cover to make sure everything is insulated against these extreme temperatures,” says Delayne Corbett, the festival’s artistic director.
That includes adjusting their sleeping and carving habits.
“We can’t do any sculpting in plus degree weather so…we start carving after 6 pm and then stop carving around 6 or 8 am,” says Corbett. “Plus we make things a lot bigger than we intend to start out with and then once the cool weather comes in we’ll do the fine details.”
Ice on Whyte organizers are hoping daytime highs will be below zero when the festival begins. And it looks like they may get their wish, as temperatures are expected to slightly drop later in the week.
With files from Slav Kornik, Global News
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