After 10 days of getting people outside, the Regina Frost Festival for 2023 has come to an end. The event was blanketed by nothing, but sunshine and organizers are dubbing this year’s edition a success.
“From an organizing standpoint warm weather brings in a whole set of new challenges and I think all of our hubs did a great job in navigating that,” said Tim Reid, Regina Winter Festival committee co-chair.
Reid said the festival was well received among attendees and provided a breakdown of some of the more unusual stats.
“There were 768 total Wascana kick sledding trips — of which I was one and (was) the slowest by far,” Reid said. “There were 72 Taylor Swift songs that were played, and 4,375 bowls of chilli given out at the annual chilli cookoff.”
With an estimated 88,000 visitors across the hubs around the city, it’s a 30 per cent increase from last year and 55 perc ent were first timers.
In total, there were 296 volunteers who worked in all four hubs this year.
“Our goal was to fill a bunch of hubs and inside the district itself like Bushwakkers, The Exchange and Rebellion,” said Matt Thompson, warehouse district site manager. “The Taylor Swift concert dance party at The Exchange was just absolutely packed.”
Reid says the success of this year’s festival has cemented Frost as a top winter festival in the country.
Future dates have not been finalized for the 2023 edition of the festival, but the committee says they would like to be consistent with the timing.