The final International Competition Ice Designs are now on view thru February 6th, weather permitting!
…
The Saint Paul Festival and Heritage Foundation’s 136th Saint Paul Winter Carnival will run for 10 days – all day on weekends and evenings during the week. Now through Sunday, February 6th, the festival will attract 250,000+ people from Saint Paul and beyond to celebrate winter in Minnesota. Landmark Center, located in the heart of downtown Saint Paul, the Minnesota State Fairgrounds, and businesses throughout the city will be venues for event festivities, which include ice carving competitions, family-friendly artistic and educational activities, and much more!
The festival has expanded each year to provide new programming that reflects changing demographics of the community. Landmark Center features free entertainment activities from diverse cultures: music and dance by local artists, hands-on crafts, and food and merchandise booths from around the world.
Most events are fred, open to the public, and will take place in downtown Saint Paul, near Rice Park and Landmark Center, as well as at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds.
Since 1886, the Saint Paul Winter Carnival continues to bring family-friendly events and community pride to Saint Paul and the Twin Cities metro area.
The Saint Paul Winter Carnival is the oldest winter festival in the United States. It predates the Tournament of Roses Festival by two years.
Several Eastern newspaper correspondents kindled the start of the Winter Carnival by visiting Saint Paul in the fall of 1885 and returning home to report that Minnesota, in general, was another Siberia, unfit for human habitation.
A group of business owners decided to retaliate by creating a wintertime festival which would showcase all the beauty of Minnesota winters. They worked with the City of Montreal which already had a winter carnival in place. Due to a small pox epidemic which suspended the 1886 Montreal Festival, Saint Paul lured Alexander Hutchinson, the designer of Montreal’s ice palaces in 1883, 1884, and 1885 to blueprint Saint Paul’s first ice castle. The castle was constructed on February 1, 1886 at a cost of $5,210 with a height of 106 feet. A comparison to this first castle is the Pepsi Palace of 1992 with a cost of $1,900,000 and a height of 165 feet (a Guinness record).
As with the concept of the Montreal Festival, the legend and other activities were also adapted. Montreal’s Ice King accompanied by Queen Aurora. The Saint Paul characters in turn became King Boreas and the Queen of the Snows. The mischievous Vulcan and his red-caped Krewe were created from the Germanic tradition of the energy and disruption which springtime brings to the final days of winter.
The Winter Carnival Legend itself was initially written down by newspaper columnist Frank Madden in 1937 and has been updated and revised ever since.
Today, King Boreas and the Queen of the Snows rule over approximately 21 members of the Royal Family including Boreas’s four brothers Titan, Euros, Zephyrus and Notos along with their four princesses, the Prime Minister and up to ten Royal Guards. The culmination of the Winter Carnival is the dethroning of Boreas by the Vulcan Krewe.
The Royal Family and Vulcan Krewe are made up of volunteers that make over 400 appearances during the year to local and national festivals, nursing homes, schools and hospitals on behalf of the Winter Carnival and the City of Saint Paul.
The Saint Paul Winter Carnival is produced by the Saint Paul Festival and Heritage Foundation and is funded by private donations and corporate contributions. The Board of Directors, supported by hundreds of corporate and individual members, employs a full time staff to help plan this community celebration.
Thank you and credit to the Minnesota Historical Society; the Ramsey County Historical Society; archives of the Pioneer Press and “Fire and Ice” by Moira Harris for helping contribute to this collection of history! Also, thank you to Winter Carnival’s own, Tom Barrett, for helping us digitize all this history!
The Great Northern founding partner U.S. Pond Hockey Championships have given hockey enthusiasts a premier opportunity to experience hockey the way nature intended since 2006. For its 17th reunion year, events will be held over two weekends on the beautiful Lake Nokomis in Minneapolis.
…
The Great Northern Festival celebrates our cold, creative winters through ten days of diverse programming that invigorate mind and body. In an era of changing climate that threatens our signature season, we seek to create community, inspire action, and share the resilient spirit of the North with the world.
In a winter that is bringing major deja vu vibes, we hope you’ll think of The Great Northern as a bright light. Our events will invigorate your mind, body, and spirit with a variety of outdoor, virtual, and carefully considered indoor events. We invite you to banish cabin fever Jan 27th – Feb 6th with one of our eclectic, inspiring, and rejuvenating programs.
Keynote conversations, live podcasts, film screenings and other thought-provoking formats that allow us to explore our changing climate through the lenses of culture and heritage, the economy, and social equity.
The Great Northern looks forward to safely celebrating winter with you during our 2022 festival. We are regularly reviewing 2022 events in consultation with a COVID specialist to ensure they meet our high standards for safety and community health. Check out our website and subscribe to our newsletter for the most updated information.
After taking a pandemic pause we are excited to return to winter activities on frozen Lake Harriet in 2022, with the Kite Festival on Saturday, January 22nd and a partnership with the Art Shanty Projects each Saturday and Sunday January 15th – February 6th.
The Kite Festival is a beautiful festival that fills the sky with colorful kites, offers winter activities for all, delicious local food trucks and free s’mores by the fire to warm up throughout the day!
…
Date & Time
Saturday, January 22
Noon to 4 pm
Address
Lake Harriet 4135 W Lake Harriet Parkway
Minneapolis, MN
A new Shuttle will be provided to Lake Harriet from the Executive Building parking lot on the West side of Bde Maka Ska.
Please plan accordingly and use the shuttle from the Calhoun Executive Center.
Established in 1883, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) oversees a renowned urban park system spanning 6,809 acres of parkland and water. Featured among its 180 park properties are 55 miles of parkways, 102 miles of Grand Rounds biking and walking paths, 22 lakes, 12 formal gardens, seven golf courses and 49 recreation centers. Altogether, MPRB properties receive about 23 million visits annually.
Discover Stillwater… the 1848 Birthplace of Minnesota located on the scenic St. Croix River! A place where authentic paddle wheel riverboats and gondolas glide the waters. Historic Main Street shopping, dining, lodging and entertainment are yours inside this charming river town where time stands still in the valley. See what’s new and explore the many things to do in Stillwater, Minnesota! Enjoy Stillwater tourism in all four seasons… The robust colors of the bluffs in the fall and crisp flavors of winery and brewery harvests, Winter days showcasing holiday boutique shopping, ski trails, romantic winter escapes, and warm retreats. Spring flowers blooming in the parks and along the bike trail. Warm Summer air welcoming outdoor festivals, boating, patio dining and historic sightseeing.
Yes, welcome to beautiful Stillwater minutes from the Twin Cities Minneapolis/St. Paul and Wisconsin border. Our bed and breakfasts, historic inns, boutique downtown hotels, and vacation home rentals await your visit. Feel inspired in this historic yet vibrant rivertown.
Stillwater, Minnesota has been voted as: America’s Most Picturesque Small Towns, Best American Towns for Fall Colors, Best U.S. Towns for Antiquing, Best Twin Cities Day Trips, Best Minnesota Weekend Getaway, America’s Prettiest Painted Places, and Most Romantic Cities. Stillwater is also located on the National Scenic St. Croix Riverway, St. Croix Scenic Byway, and National Register of Historic Places.
Winter camping? Yes please! (No bugs…) Join the naturalist at Tettegouche State Park for a free one-day workshop January 22 and learn everything you need to know about camping in winter. Stay just the day, or join us and sleep out overnight using your new skills. Registration info here.
Join State Park Naturalists for a one-day introduction to winter camping. We will build a traditional quinzhee, an insulated snowcave, for sleeping. Also covered will be topics such as cooking outdoors in the snow, tricks for staying dry and warm in the winter, and we will discuss and try out some methods of transporting gear through the snow.
This one day workshop will cover everything you need to know about camping in the winter. Participants who CHOOSE to do so will be able to sleep in the constructed quinzhees and try out the skills they have just learned. Come for just a day of winter fun and learning, or make a weekend out of it. You choose.
No bugs! No poisonous plants! Lots of fun! Outdoor winter programs are subject to change upon weather conditions. Call the park day of program and check here for cancelations. This program will be cancelled if the air temperature is below -15F.
Registered participants will be sent a couple of instructional packets ahead of the workshop in order to better prepare you for the experience.
Please more info link here or call the Park Naturalist at 218.353.8809; email kurt.mead@state.mn.us
Plan to be flexible. Explore new destinations and consider mid-week travel. Parks are busy as more people get outdoors, so we encourage you to discover a new favorite!
Arrive prepared. Buy your vehicle permit, check visitor alerts and download maps before your trip.
Recreate responsibly. Help conserve these special places for the future by staying on trails and leaving no trace.
For information about a specific park, visit here to link for the A-Z list of state parks and recreation areas.
Each year, Ice Castles brings fairy tales to life for hundreds of thousands of families across North America. Our goal is to make people smile.
Ice Castles is an award-winning frozen attraction. The experience is built using hundreds of thousands of icicles hand-placed by professional ice artists. The castles include breathtaking LED-lit sculptures, frozen thrones, ice-carved tunnels, slides, fountains and much more.
…
…
The story behind Ice Castles
Since 2011, Ice Castles has been dedicated to creating an experience that will live on long after the ice melts. For all who enter through our icicle-adorned archways, we hope the time spent at Ice Castles is a source of joy and inspiration.
Bringing joy to others has been our mission since the company’s inception. Founder, Brent Christensen, crafted his first icy creation in the front yard of his home to bring happiness and joy to his children. After moving from sunny California to snowy Utah, Christensen did what any father of six stir-crazy kids with cabin fever would do. He built an ice cave in his yard to get his kids out of the house. His stroke of genius worked!
His icy invention wasn’t just a hit with his own children. Kids from all over the neighborhood – and eventually from all across town — got wind of his creation, bundled up, and headed outside to play at Christensen’s wintry wonderland. The kids affectionately called this winter playground an “ice castle”. And that is exactly what it is today.
Although Ice Castles has grown significantly since then, our mission remains the same – to create happiness, laughter, and unforgettable winter memories.
Free parking is available throughout Long Lake Regional Park. Parking directly adjacent to Ice Castles is limited. Guests will be directed to nearest available parking by Ice Castles event staff. During peak hours a complimentary shuttle will run from all available Ice Castles parking lots in Long Lake Regional Park.
