Ottawa Citizen

WEAthEr hAmpErs GAtinEAu FEstivAl

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Organizers of Mosaïverna­les are trying to put their opening two weekends in perspectiv­e and crossing their fingers that Mother Nature will be kinder the next three weeks. The display of more than two dozen illuminate­d snow sculptures in Gatineau’s Jacques-Cartier Park — essentiall­y the wintertime version of the MosaïCanad­a150 display, which drew 1.3 million visitors last year — experience­d high temperatur­es when it opened on the last weekend in January, melting parts of the sculptures and forcing the attraction to close for four days before reopening to a wind chill that neared -30 C. Only about 5,000 people attended Mosaïverna­les over those two weekends, putting at risk organizers’ hopes of attracting 200,000 visitors by the time it closes on March 4. “We just have to put those two weekends behind us,” spokeswoma­n Geneviève Ménard said, adding that this past weekend saw better weather and larger crowds.

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