Mild weather sparks Winterlude tweaks

With daytime highs above freezing for the weekend, Winterlude organizers say they expect to make changes to the annual winter festival, which wraps up on Monday.

The Rideau Canal is closed and updates for the 38th-annual Accora Village Bed Race and the Waiters and Waitresses Race, scheduled to be held on the skateway this weekend, will be posted on the Winterlude website.

“We always have contingency plans in place. We always have Plan B,” said Natalie Huneault, a spokeswoman for the Department of Canadian Heritage. “Ottawa natives know that the weather in February is often unpredictable.”

There’s still a lot happening at the Snowflake Kingdom on the north end of Jacques-Cartier Park in Gatineau and the Crystal Garden at Confederation Park in Ottawa, said Huneault. Two of the three super tube slides at the Kingdom are running, but the introduction to downhill skiing and snowboarding has been cancelled.

The Extreme Aerial Acrobatic Show will be held inside the shelter tent. Planned programming for the Crystal Garden remains unaffected. The carvings in the international ice-carving competition are still standing, and the public icecarving challenge will go ahead as planned on Saturday at 11:30 a.m. The Sub-Zero Concerts will also go ahead at 7:30 p.m. with the Hip Hop Soirée ICI Musique on Friday and Juno Award-winning Francesco Yates and DJ Vito V on Saturday.

Updates will be listed on the Winterlude calendar of events website. Links to the social media channels are available on the main Winterlude page.

The City of Ottawa says its Family Day party is still on from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday, whether the Sens Rink of Dreams is open or closed.

The party will feature local mascots, free family activities, and free coffee and hot chocolate.