One hundred twenty-one years ago, a group of winter warriors decided that, instead of hiding from the cold, we should come together to challenge winter. They helped create a legend full of characters to carry out the annual battle between cold and warm. The Royal Guard are continually hoping the ice gods are on their side. But we know the Vulcans will win – although this year the forces of cold staged a brilliant battle.
The Winter Carnival is a community festival. It belongs to all of us. It is a part of our unique quality of life and puts Minnesota in the international spotlight for its bold challenge to winter. Anyone can get together in the spring, summer and fall. Hearty people gather when it takes courage and heart.
We love the Winter Carnival so much because it brings people together year after year. It is a tradition that we need to protect, defend and stabilize to make it possible for future generations to be part of this living history.
Behind the parades, the ice carvings, the fire engines and the coronation is a reality we cannot ignore. The festival business has changed dramatically in the past decade, and so has the weather. The carnival needs to address this.
We compete with many different attractions, including youth sports, professional sports, water parks, video games, home theaters with high-definition televisions, and a life that seems busier than we can remember. Gone are the days when the community festival was the place to celebrate with your neighbors. There are many other choices out there – and we need to make sure the Winter Carnival remains a top choice.
This is why we made some changes to the festival, the events and the locations of the different events.
This year, the Winter Carnival created a central location on Harriet Island. This change helped us reach out to more communities in a more direct manner. This change made it possible for us to attract new sponsors and support that we need to pay our bills and make sure it’s financially feasible for the legend to continue.
Change is not easy, and we understand that not everyone agreed with all of the decisions we made. As with any event that depends on the cooperation of Mother Nature, not everything worked as well as we had hoped.
After years of warm weather challenges, this year the extreme cold produced different obstacles. We heard from many people who missed the activity in Rice Park. Also, the parking system did not work as well as we would have liked.
These are things we can fix, and we will work to improve them for next year.
Many of the new ideas and attractions like the Dog Sled rally, the Hot Dish Tent and the Ice Slide were very well received. These attractions help us bring more people together and also secure sponsorship dollars on a national and international scale. Creating a focal point for the events and activities helped families and people not familiar with the festival experience the magic of our winter party.
It is our goal to make next year’s festival even better.
We will analyze the financial picture of the 2007 festival and take the feedback we have received from members of the public on what they would like to see in the future.
We will recruit new board members to help broaden our reach into the business community of the entire metro area.
And we will build a stronger business relationship with our members and the cast of characters who make up the Legend of Winter Carnival.
The advice and the support of the city and the feedback from our stakeholders is important to our future and the festival’s ongoing success.
We are committed to making sure there are effective ways to communicate. Starting in March, we will begin to hold a series of town hall meetings. These town hall meetings will provide a formal process for taking in the ideas and concerns of our members and our sponsors. The dates of these meetings will be communicated in our Legends Newsletter.
We are determined to preserve the celebration of the Winter Carnival for all the memories it creates and the tradition it embodies. After all, this community owns the festival, as it has from the first day the founders dared us all to celebrate winter.
Kris Taylor chairs the board of the St. Paul Festival and Heritage Foundation. Kate Kelly is the chief executive officer of the foundation.
Copyright 2007 Pioneer Press.
