More than 68K visit inaugural Frost Festival

Regina’s inaugural Frost Festival has ended with organizers pleased with its success.

Over the ten days, a total of 68,012 people took in the winter festivities at Wascana Lake, the warehouse district, downtown and on the Regina Exhibition Association Limited (REAL) campus.

“Thank you Regina for embracing winter and taking part in the inaugural festival,” Tim Reid, president and CEO of REAL, said.

In terms of financials, Reid said the numbers aren’t finalized yet, but he anticipates all four hubs will break even.

The event received $120,000 in grants that was split evenly between the four hubs, with each individual hub finding additional sponsorships and funding to cover other costs.

“The investment that was made on behalf of REAL was about $1.2 million, which is part of the reason why you saw a $17 and $10 gate fee here,” Reid said.

Breaking down some of the statistics, over the ten days, there were more than 2,000 pairs of skates loaned out at the downtown ice rinks, 425 dog sled rides at Wascana Lake, 7,700 cans of the Frost branded beer sold in the warehouse district and 150,000 trips down the ice slide at REAL.

“Lighting up the city in winter is enormously important,” Sandra Masters, Mayor of Regina said. “Even on an ongoing program basis outside of the festival, it’s important to continue to support. We want folks to be out, we want them to be active.”

Masters said this festival fell perfectly in line with Regina’s goal of becoming a winter city, adding “you guys have to do this again!”

There are plans to bring Frost Festival back in 2023.

Reid said the organizing committee still has to debrief, adding there are some things they learned from this year’s event.

“I think we recognize that ten days is a long festival. We are very proud we did it, but I think we need to re-evaluate the length in the future,” said Reid.

He added a summer festival is hard on volunteers and staff, but adding in the cold and wind made it that much harder on the 147 volunteers.

Next year, Reid said there could be a bigger investment into the pure winter moments, adding residents could see more ice slides, ice sculptures and snow mazes.

Dates for the 2023 festival will be announced at a later time.