Deep Freeze: A Byzantine Winter Festival
‘Canadians are real winter people’
Twelve years ago, artists in the Alberta Avenue community put on a festival to break free from the post-Christmas winter doldrums. Each year it continued to grow in popularity, attracting more than 55,000 people in 2018 and being voted Silver in this year’s Readers’ Choice Award winner.
“In the first few years it was a neighbourhood party,” says Festival Producer, Allison Argy-Burgess. “But the past few years, people have talked about it all over the province. People are excited about it.”
“When we started the goal was to bring community together in the winter and so it’s a real honour that people acknowledged it and wanted to thank us for the hard work the team has put into it,” says Christy Morin, Executive Director of Arts on the Ave that created the festival and is the Festival’s Artistic Director.
The Deep Freeze festival combines art, culture, and Edmontonians’ love of winter into a twoday party celebrating Ukrainian, French-Canadian, and Métis culture through song, food, and art.
“It’s creating an experience for the whole family,” says Morin. “You can go into a heritage tent and learn how to spin yarn and then go outside and watch an ice carving being built or go down the ice slide and try some ethnic food. It’s that cultural mixing that people love.”
In 2019, the festival is extending its hours and adding World Music performances in the evening. During the day, you can enjoy music, dance and theatre performances, art galleries, street hockey, culinary delights and the world famous Deep Freeze freezer races.
“There’s so much to do it’s just crazy,” says Argy-Burgess. “People can go play outdoors and enjoy the winter and then pop in to a café or one of the tents and listen to beautiful music.”
“Canadians are real winter people.”