WATERTOWN — Snowtown USA will be back after a two-year absence.
The last two festivals — devoted to the north country’s winters — were canceled because of the COVID pandemic.
But organizers are planning to host the festival during Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend, from Jan. 12 to 15.
David Daily, who helped organize the event during its heyday, appeared before City Council on Monday night asking for help to put on the festival this time around.
He asked council members to help bring back snow sculpting by providing blocks of snow for the event. Professional snow sculptors plan to be involved in the event, creating a bust of Martin Luther King Jr.
He also asked for the city to create an outdoor ice skating rink in Park Circle, but Mayor Jeffrey M. Smith interrupted to tell him the city was already planning to put one there this winter, he said.
When the event was first held during the early 1980s, snow sculpting was one of the festival’s big draws, with the winners of the snow carving at Snowtown going on to national competition every year. Organizers hope to work toward getting Snowtown’s sculpting competition designated as the region’s national qualifier, Mr. Daily said.
Organizers also hope to honor Klaus Ebeling of Adams Center, who’s regarded as the “father of snow sculpting,” at this year’s Snowtown, Mr. Daily said.
City Parks and Recreation Superintendent Scott D. Weller, a member of the Snowtown committee, said the group has been meeting monthly to plan for the event
“It’s been a couple of years, but we’re bringing it back with some things new,” he said.
The committee hopes to release a complete schedule of activities by the end of December. Many of the Snowtown activities and events are held at Thompson Park and other city facilities.
While the city doesn’t provide any funding for Snowtown, parks staff help work on setting up the event for that weekend.
Snowtown USA has historically been an annual event during which hundreds of community members participate in a wide range of winter events and activities that center around the celebration of snow.
Mr. Daily chaired the event for 12 years the first time around, when it got residents out of their homes for some winter fun. Following the Blizzard of 1977, former CBS Evening News anchor Walter Cronkite coined the phrase “Snowtown USA” when reporting that a blizzard dumped some 220 inches of snow in Watertown.
A few years later, organizers used that same phrase as the name of the newly created festival.
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