Newly installed skating pond at Manitou Beach. (Facebook/Watrous Manitou Cross-Country Skiing)

By Angie Rolheiser

Manitou Winterfest

Annual winter festival coming up at Manitou Beach

Feb 13, 2020 | 2:00 PM

The resort village of Manitou Beach is set to host visitors from the surrounding area for their annual winter festival.

Chair of the Manitou Beach recreation board, Sherwin Peterson, said all of the events are being held at Danceland on Feb. 29.

A big attraction for the day is the craft and art fair according to Peterson.

“We started with 12 or 15 and then 25 and now we get well over 40 applications but we had to set it at 30 tables because we do run out room,” Peterson said.

With a variety of events happening in the historic dance hall, it can fill up very quickly.

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The winter festival begins with a pancake breakfast followed by musical entertainment, the art and craft fair, food vendors and a cribbage tournament.

“We have a very large contingent of seniors that come and play cribbage,” Peterson said. “We will have probably about 40 or 50 that come out to play.”

A skating pond is a new addition to the area bear Danceland and the crokicurl rink is open for the third year in a row. There will be hot chocolate and a bonfire for the day as well.

“We have a large skating area and I created a tot skating area so we hope that people just come and utilize that,” Peterson said.

The pancake breakfast runs from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. for $7 an adult and $4 for 12 and under. The rest of the events for the day are free of charge.

“We do have a silver collection and that seems to work out well, our purpose for this is just for people to come and have fun,” Peterson said.

The food fair includes five restaurateurs and two specialty groups.

Peterson said people from all over the surrounding area tend to participate in the day whether they are visiting the spa or just simply coming for the festival itself.

The funds brought in through the silver collection are used for various functions around the village throughout the year.

“The rec board supports a lot of different things from the chainsaw carving competition and the Prairie Artists sculptures, we just try to help out where we can,” Peterson said.

Manitou Beach will host the Big Float again this summer. The first big float was held last July where over 1,600 people came out to make a record of the most people floating in a lake at one time. Peterson hinted they may take that to another level by challenging another lake to do the same.

Peterson said Manitou Beach is quite a busy place between artisans that call the village home and different events.

“There is always something to do here,” Peterson said.

Editor’s note: this story was corrected to reflect 1,600 people floated in the lake last summer not 16,000 as initially reported.

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angie.rolheiser@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @Angie_Rolheiser