It is nice to see a picture like that of our civic centre plaza.

It is so often that I go by there and the ice surface is covered with snow and the plaza is deserted. Such places need to have someone who manages the location as an activity centre.

I think that we should have simply expanded the size of the ice surface to make it a bit more functional rather than spending the money to carve up the open space into little bits and pieces which reduces the flexibility of the space.

Stuart Park open-air ice rink at Kelowna waterfront http://www.castanet.net/content/2012/11/icerink2011-withband.jpg_p1341526.jpg

Robson Square open air ice rink in downtown Vancouver. This rink has a skate rental plus hot drink and snack stand.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6w1RiuNaDGE/TuMeQoEcPLI/AAAAAAAAVyw/zGWKgZ6h7wM/s1600/RW1_2802.jpg

Nice to only see a story of this AFTER the event. I may have gone if i had heard of it before.

According to the promotion: “the Winterfest Christmas Market will bring the feel of those old European Markets to Prince George.”

Sure. NOT!!!

If people would be honest with their promotions it would help a lot.

https://www.facebook.com/events/709628599061719

The Vancouver German Christmas Market is a relatively good representation of Christmas Markets in Germany. It is on for one month from November to December.

With some effort we could develop one that might last for an extended weekend prior to Christmas. That effort should be one that is handled by the DBIA with some funding from their budget.

The kiosks could be built with the help of a first year carpentry class at CNC or even in conjunction with some high school students in an introductory trades class.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ap6CGPadXTw&feature=player_embedded

We used to put on a credible Mardi Gras with SnowGolf as well as Oktoberfest for several years. We seem to have lost the desire to attend them as well as continue to organize them.

WHY????

LAZY! Everyone is too busy being important.

Mardis Gras and World Championship Snow Golf used to be a big deal for PG. I remember Snow Juice (yellow pop), snow cones (made with snow juice) and those big purple bouncey balls with snow bears picture on it used for snow golf. Don Prentice was the driving force behind that! When Don died so did Mardi Gras!

Everyone’s lazy and self important NoWay? That would include yourself then?

To answer Gus’ question of “why?”, I believe part of it is because 40 years ago (when Mardis Gras etc were at their peak) the entertainment choices consisted of 2 channels on TV accessed by rabbit ears, and two really bad AM radio stations. There were only a two or three movie theatres.

In PG in the 70’s, you had to make your own fun.

Today, we have hundreds of channels to choose from on cable, streaming movies on demand, video games, etc. We can cocoon in our homes for the winter and not be bored, or socialize.

Other reasons: People spend their time and money to fly to southern climes during winter, rather than investing time on winter activity.

I also think there are so many more charities and fund raisers, than there were in the past, that anybody with the time and energy devoted to their cause has nothing left to put on such a winter function as Mardis Gras or Snow Golf.

If I’m not mistaken, Mardis Gras and Snow Golf were quite the piss-up from what I recall as a child. Lots of mulled wine in deer skins. It shouldn’t be the reason to attend but I think possibly with the attitude of drinking and driving changes, people thought “why bother?”.

I’m just tossing that one out there.

I seem to remember “Knurdelling” but nobody I know recalls it. People used over-sized Q-Tips to smack a red rubber ball around into the opposing net.

It was played in Spruceland Mall’s parking lot.

Much tamer than it used to be but Snow Daze is around the corner…

http://www.snowdaze.ca/events-schedule/

As is ColdSnap

http://www.coldsnapfestival.com/

Those were the 70s Pylot. I remember the Mardi Gras floats and snow golf and good old Dog ‘n’ Suds. Started to die off in the 80s and never even heard mention of it even in the 90s. Used to listen to it on the radio all the interviews with contestants and teams. Some teams dressed up quite professionally like the one my brother was in dressed as the muppets. They had field hockey sticks for an event but the costumes were too bulky to win or even place well.

I remember that people used to practice knurdling and a few other “sports” in the park behind our house.

I have the TV on watching NFL as a backgrounder while doing this and other things.

I understand what you are saying, Pylot Project, but all those things happened in other communities both small and large as well. We are not the only ones that live in a new age.

The reason I mention professional, televised sports, especially in the USA where they have 9 people for each of our one, The pack the stadiums that are, in the most part, twice the size as those in Canada. Their seasons are longer. They have baseball where teams play multiple games per week and many of the winning team stadiums are sold out for the season.

I never did like spectator sports, preferring individual, active sports. I attended a few games just to see what it is like and realized that other than the crowd noise and the presence, I really had a difficult time seeing all the action one can see on TV with the closer view as well as the replays.

YET, all those people attend games still and all those people attend movies as well in other cities.

We just came back from 10 days in Vancouver. We went to 4 movies which will likely never see the light of day in PG.

As far as liquor goes, maybe the new liquor laws will make some changes.

In Vancouver, they serve alcohol and people walk around drinking mulled wine.

A Xmas Market is not a Xmas Market without it. Oktoberfest is not the same without beer.

Maybe too many WASP abolitionists in town.

I meant to refer to the abolition of alcohol … I suppose prohibitionists would have been more appropriate … ;-)