Buffalo Winter Fest This Weekend

Article courtesy of Buffalowinterfest.com

If there's any city that should be celebrating its dynamic winters, it should be Buffalo. for several years, until the Labatt Pond Hockey Tournament and Powder Keg Festival, that was not the case. People were not embracing winter, and that was unfortunate. With the announcement of the Pond Hockey Tournament back in 2007, Buffalonians were finally given a reason to look forward to enjoying an outdoor quality of life in Downtown Buffalo. It didn't take long for urban activists Newell Nussbaumer and Jeff Empric to jump onboard with the newfound enthusiasm, and in 2009 the Powder Keg Festival was born, Piggybacking off of the success of pond hockey, it was decided that a major winter festival was necessary to captivate the imaginations of people who were just starting to understand the nature of embracing winter. In what was merely a matter of a few short months, a small group of festival volunteers began to brainstorm ideas to draw people downtown in the 'heat' of winter.

The group mapped out an area that bounded the waterfront, Pearl Street Grill and Brewery and One HSBC Center. It was decided that the Metro Rail would be the ideal form of transportation in and out of the event, since the rail line passed directly into and through the activities. Seeing that it was the inaugural year, the organizers realized that they needed a 'hook' to get the media onboard - they wanted to generate a 'buzz'. In hindsight, a 'buzz' was an understatement, as two different key scenarios unfolded, which would ultimately help to draw upwards of 70,000 people to witness history in the making. On one hand, it was decided that there should be sledding off of one of the off-ramps of The Skyway. Nothing like that had ever been dreamed up before, and since the off-ramp was located within the footprint of the festival, a charge was put forth to "Make it so!" In conjunction with sledding down the Skyway ramp, organizers were determined to somehow break a world record and began to research different possibilities as they pertained to winter and snow.

That's how the concept of building the world's largest ice maze came about. What appeared a near impossible task was set in motion, and for the better part of festival preparation, coordinators and volunteers began to orchestrate and build the impossible dream. As the excitement grew and word of mouth spread, myriad activities were added - broomball, kids' activity tent, a dog parade, snow shoeing, X-country skiing, igloo building, a festival market, KanJam, a Chex Hockey tournament, and snow tennis. A massive beer tent featuring some of the best regional music acts was another one of the big draws, while different types of foods were offered in a family-friendly setting. Never had downtown Buffalo seen such a frenzy of outdoor activity during a winter season. Winter had new name in Buffalo, and it was the Powder Keg Festival.

This year the Festival is also teaming up with the Buffalo Auto Show and again with the Labatt Pond Hockey Tournament. Organizers have also tapped Buffalo Promoter and festival veteran Drew Cerza to take the festival to the next level. This year a much expanded food menu will be available as well as an expended winter sports schedule for attendees at Coca-Cola Field.

For more information see http://www.buffalowinterfest.com