Lowell, Massachusetts
The annual
Winterfest
in
Lowell, Massachusetts, is a
festival started in
2001 as a way to celebrate the winter season and encourage people to venture outdoors during those months. Winterfest has become New England’s largest winter carnival and has been widely covered by local and national news media.
Following
Super Bowl week, the two-day festival is held in Lowell’s downtown and includes a large number of events. Among the most popular of these events is the
Human Dog Sled Competition, which consists of several six-person teams dressed in wacky costumes compete for titles ranging from fastest team to best dressed. The Human Dog Sled Competition was recognized by
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in
2003 for its animal-friendly approach to winter fun.
Winterfest also includes a Soup Bowl Competition in which local restaurant chefs have their hand at creating original recipes which are tasted and voted on by festival attendees. Other Winterfest activities include: children’s entertainment, heated food, drink, live music tents, free ice skating at
Tsongas Arena, a hay ride, a snowman building contest, and an art gallery showing by Lowell’s local artists. Frequent musical performers include
The Joshua Tree and
The Transitions. The festival ends with a fireworks display which organizers claim rivals those on the
Fourth of July.
Beloit, Wisconsin
Similar to Lowell, Massachusetts' Winterfest, the
Beloit Festival ranges in location from the
Eclipse Center to Riverside Park and throughout downtown. Events include an indoor playland, ice skating on the lagoon, ice sculpting and tobaggon races. All events take place in the city of
Beloit.
Newaygo, Michigan
The annual
Winterfest
in
Newaygo, is a
backyard wrestling event started in
2002 as the annual big-time event put on by the Newaygo Wrestling Organization (nWo). Since its 2002 inception, the nWo has put on four more events with the most recent one occurring on January 2, 2008 in which the main event saw Novacain defeat Caktuz and Justin Sane in a Double Last Man Standing Match for the unified and undisputed nWo World Heavyweight Championship.
See also
- Winterlude - a similar festival held annually in the Canadian National Capital Region
- Winter Formal - a highschool event similar to that of Prom