Events are starting to come together for the 41st annual Denare Beach Winter Festival. Recreation director for the Northern Village of Denare Beach Mel Durette said she’s still looking for a few more people to sign up as volunteers.
“It's starting to fill up pretty fast,” she said.
“It is going pretty good. I do have quite a few names, but the more that we get, the better it is.”
Durette said the needs for the festival are varied.
“Just helping with the supper prep, supper cleanup, all of the kids events, anywhere from bingo to boot hockey,” she said.
“Pretty much every event needs volunteers to run.”
Events are varied. While the trap-setting competition starts on Feb. 11, the festival proper kicks off Feb. 21.
“Friday is the Musher’s Supper,” Durette said.
“There'll be a penny parade there. There's the trap setting competition from Feb. 11-Feb. 15, turkey curling and Winter Festival kids games - bubble blowing, frozen t-shirt, jello eating, animal calling and jigging.”
Two lakefront events will highlight the weekend. Feb. 22 will feature the fishing derby running from 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Signups are at Angell’s Marina. Participants will require a festival button and a $10 entrance fee.
There will be snowmobile drag races Feb. 23 on Amisk Lake. Entranants need to sign up between 11 a.m.-noon. Different classes of sleds will tear down the lake. There is a registration fee of $10 and a class fee of $20. Call 204-687-8001 for more information.
Durette is scrambling in these last few weeks to try and replace horse rides.
“The guy that does the horses is unable to make it,” she said.
“This will be the first time without having them. I'm trying to come up with something for the kids to do. We're unsure. He is even trying to find somebody to do it for him.”
Entering the final preparations for a festival is always stressful, but Durette said contributions from the community can help alleviate the pressure.
“Some stuff is falling apart, and some stuff is coming together,” she said.
“We are also going to have fireworks this year, which we didn't plan. The fireworks are on Friday at 8 p.m. I would like to have them at the Denareplex rather than have everybody pile up and go down to the lake like last year. The firework committee approached me. They had leftover ones that asked me to leave a donation.”
This is Durette’s third year organizing the festival.
“I grew up out here my whole life. I grew up volunteering for this stuff,” she said.
“I pretty much knew how everything ran. I’m trying to bring stuff back that we had when we were kids.”
