TASTE OF WINTER
Municipality organizing festival for all-ages
CBRM Recreation announces new winter festival.
Trying to ensure that everyone will find something that appeals to them is one of the key tenets behind a new winter festival announced Friday by CBRM recreation.
Taste of Winter will feature more than 30 activities in many different areas across the Cape Breton Regional Municipality. The full lineup of events is expected to be released next week, but it will include indoor and outdoor activities as well as things intended to appeal to people of all ages. It will begin this month and continue into March, CBRM recreation program co-ordinator Joe Costello said in an interview.
“We wanted to make sure that it was accessible to the majority of our residents,” he said. “We know some residents are interested in active living, they’re interested in outdoor fun and stuff that’s associated with winter, but we don’t want to forget about the people who just want to have fun indoors or they want to see an event.”
Costello said the festival will focus on four pillars — outdoor fun, indoor fun, active living and special events.
Events will begin on Feb. 19 with what is being called an “indoor drive-in” at George D. Lewis School in Louisbourg featuring a showing of Disney’s “Moana.”
“It’s important that people not feel that they’re isolated to their homes in the winter, we know that ice and snow and cold can be a barrier to some people so we wanted to have that selection of both indoor and outdoor things to do,” Costello said.
Other activities that will take place over the course of Taste of Winter will be curling, skating, trail hikes, seniors socials, as well as the annual Louisbourg Slush Run and Walk, and a new snowboard competition launched in partnership with Ski Ben Eoin and Ollie Around.
“There’s stuff for seniors, there’s a lot of stuff for children, but then there’s also a lot of cross-demographic where we can bring different age groups together,” Costello said. “There’s stuff like hikes or snowshoeing on the Greenlink Trail, that could appeal to anybody that’s into that.”
The intention was to try to keep any barriers to participation to a minimum, he added.
The festival could potentially become an annual event, Costello said.
“We’ll see what the community response is, this time of year, of course, everything is very weather-related so we would like to continue having something every winter and of course that’s something we feel very strongly about, that the recreation department does year-round activities for our residents,” he said.
If anyone has suggestions for potential future events, they can contact CBRM recreation.
“We’re kind of treating it as a living document, as well … as every single thing is 100 per cent confirmed and all the information is out, we’re just going to keep adding stuff,” Costello said.
Taste of Winter will release a full schedule of activities next week via the website www.tasteofwinter.ca.
“We know some residents are interested in active living, they’re interested in outdoor fun and stuff that’s associated with winter, but we don’t want to forget about the people who just want to have fun indoors or they want to see an event.” Joe Costello, CBRM recreation program co-ordinator