This year’s Winter Carnival, Jan. 26-29, will feature some familiar cancan dancers at the bobsled calcutta auction.
As always, bobsled teams will be required to bring their sled to a mandatory brake and steering inspection outside the Legion the Thursday of carnival weekend. The inspection will be followed by the bobsled calcutta auction, but this year there will also be feathers, frills and excitement with a special performance from the Boomtown Garter Girls.
This year’s four-day event will also include plenty of family-friendly fun, and while there is no kids’ carnival on Sunday this year, family-friendly events on this year’s schedule will be marked by a snowman icon. Kid-friendly events include the City of Rossland Carnival Parade on Friday at 6:30 p.m. and the firefighters pancake breakfast at the firehall on Saturday, from 7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m., among many others.
There are also some new options for food this year.
The West Kootenay Sno Goers will be serving egg breakfast sandwhiches and grilled cheese at the bottom of the bobsled run on Saturday, and the Rossland Public Library will be serving chili.
Winter Carnival always draws a crowd, and this year is expected to be no different, as Tara Kowalchuk, president of Rossland Winter Carnival, reports that accomodations in town are already booked up for the weekend.
Call for carnival volunteers
Anyone interested in being an event volunteer for Winter Carnival can contact organizers through rosslandwintercarnival.com. Members of the Winter Carnival committee will also be recruiting volunteers at Ferraro’s the week before the event.
“Volunteering is just a great way to be part of carnival and to get involved with carnival, and meet people, and have a great time,” says Kowalchuk.
Every year volunteers receive swag in exchange for their hard work, and this year volunteers will be sporting Winter Carnival baseball caps.
“People are always wondering where people get the great clothing with the carnival logo on it, and to get that you have to be a volunteer,” explains Kowalchuk.
Each event at Winter Carnival is organized by event volunteers, and the Rossland Winter Carnival committee wants to give a big thank you to the volunteer event organizers who make those events happen and keep them going year to year.
Road closures during winter carnival
Queen St. will be closed between Columbia Ave. and Leroi Ave., and between First Ave. and Columbia Ave., from Wednesday, Jan. 25 at 8 a.m. until Sunday, Jan. 29 at 8 p.m.
Spokane St. will be closed until Saturday, Jan. 28 at 5:30 p.m., except for the section between First and Second Ave., which will be closed until Sunday, Jan. 29 at 2 p.m.
Columbia Ave. will closed for the parade between 6:30 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 27.
For the full Winter Carnival schedule, visit rosslandwintercarnival.com or check out the Jan. 26 issue of the Rossland News.
