By Jessica Riggio | Photo by Holly Leitner
There are many ways to enjoy Winterfest in Lake Geneva: head out for a walk along the lakefront, take in the snow-sculpting artistry at work and then pop into local shops for food, cocktails and unique shopping. Grab some s’mores and snuggle up next to a bonfire on the beach. And be sure to cast your vote for the best snow sculpture in the people’s choice polls.
For 30 years now, when the weather is at its coldest and the snow is best for sculpting, Lake Geneva has thrown this party of the season: Winterfest. This year’s Winterfest will take place Jan. 29 through Feb. 2 along the lakefront in Lake Geneva, and the schedule is packed with fun for the whole family, continuing a three-decade-long tradition.
VISIT Lake Geneva organizes the event, and the group predicts that Winterfest will bring more than 65,000 visitors to Lake Geneva. This year, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the event, organizers have invited 15 teams of past winners of the popular snow-sculpting competition to compete for first, second and third place, as well a people’s choice award and an artist’s choice award, chosen by fellow sculptors.
The snow sculpting artists will dedicate four days to crafting works of art from snow provided by Grand Geneva Resort’s Mountain Top Ski and Adventure Center, delivered by the City of Lake Geneva and formed into 10-foot blocks. Spectators will be able to watch the work in progress and see the finished art on display in Flat Iron Park and the Driehaus Family Plaza at the Riviera.
“It will be a really high level of talent with our sculptors being past winners, and coming in from all over the country,” explains Deanna Goodwin, Vice President of Marketing, Communications and Development at VISIT Lake Geneva.
Some additional Winterfest activities include entertainment, food and hot drinks, bonfires and sales and specials at downtown shops and restaurants. Sculptors often work through cold nights, creating art that attendees can watch come to life in real time.
Goodwin says that another popular part of Winterfest is the ice sculpture walk, and, this year, organizers expect as many as 60 local businesses to sponsor ice sculptures, which will be on display throughout downtown Lake Geneva in front of stores, restaurants and hotels. Winterfest attendees can stroll Lake Geneva’s downtown to see the ice sculptures while enjoying shopping and dining options.
This year’s Winterfest will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the event, which began in Lake Geneva in 1995. Grace Eckland, who retired from the Lake Geneva Convention and Visitors Bureau in 2014, remembers the early days of Winterfest, and says it was all about bringing life to businesses in the darkest and quietest time of year, after all of the summer tourism traffic disappeared.
“[Back then], Lake Geneva was completely dormant after Labor Day and went to sleep in the winter,” Eckland explains. “So there was this business owner who decided he needed to come up with something to attract people in the winter.”
According to George Hennerly, founder of the Lake Geneva Chamber of Commerce, that business owner was Nick Anagnos, owner of popular downtown restaurant Popeye’s on Lake Geneva. Hennerly says that the goal in the beginning was to bring more customers into Popeye’s and the surrounding downtown businesses.
In fact, the first Winterfest wasn’t even organized around snow sculpting; rock and roll was at its heart, because the first organizers were members of a band eager to provide entertainment. Eckland and Hennerly both describe the first attempt at Winterfest as a bit disorganized. “It was a good idea, but it had to be done right, and it was too much for one person to do,” Eckland says.
So, for the second Winterfest, organizers added the snow-sculpting competition to the event, and found that attendees loved watching the artists create works of art as they looked on. Relocating the snow-sculpting competition to Lake Geneva wasn’t just a great move for the locals, it also provided the perfect setting for the sculptors in the event. Prior to 1996, most snow-sculpting competitions had been held in New England, where the weather was amenable for sculpting. But it was a long way to travel for the teams from the western U.S. and Alaska, and it was often difficult for everyone to find lodging together.
Lake Geneva offered a central location and plentiful lodging options. “We hosted all the sculptors in hotels here in Lake Geneva, so they all were closer together,” Eckland said. “Before and after the competition, they can go out in downtown Lake Geneva, so it’s a perfect place for them.”
The first year the snow sculptors came to Lake Geneva, Eckland welcomed them with a double batch of her homemade, 20-ingredient “Killer Chili,” a gesture that earned her the nickname “Snow Mom” among the crew. Today, restaurants and businesses from all over the area pitch in to welcome the sculptors, providing them with lodging, catered dinners, never-ending coffee and places to warm up as they work through the often frigid days and nights of the festival.
“We get a lot of positive feedback from the sculptors on our hospitality here in Lake Geneva, from our hotels providing rooms and the restaurants that provide breakfast, lunch and dinner, to local businesses that work with us to provide a hospitable environment for our sculptors,” Goodwin says.
Unlike the days of the first Winterfest, today Lake Geneva remains an active and vibrant vacation destination year-round. Eckland credits the success of Winterfest with helping to bring tens of thousands of visitors each year to discover the charm of winter at the lake, which helps to keep the shops, restaurants and resorts operating at full capacity. “The tourism here has a great impact on the community,” she says. “And Winterfest is a big part of that.”
