Prince George, B.C. – Great crowds, great acts, what’s not to like about the Coldsnap music festival this year?

“It’s gone great, our main focus has been at ArtSpace and not the main stage. They’ve had great crowds, we’ve had great crowds out at ArtSpace and the Legion, it’s going fantastic so far,” says artistic director Sue Judge.

Live music has been a “hit” so far during the Canada Winter Games – photo 250News

Even so, she calls this year’s festival a “one-off” considering their partnership with the Canada Winter Games.

“Yes, it’s unique. We’ve had to change, it’s a collaboration. We decided quite early that we couldn’t put on a ticketed festival two weeks before this great big free festival, so basically we’re helping them put on their festival.”

Does she feel the Coldsnap brand has taken a hit due to the Games?

“Well, not really. Our focus audience knows who we are and knows what we do and we’re getting a pretty good reputation over the last 10 years. It’s a fairly established festival.”

And because of some recent funding from the federal government ($15,000) she feels Coldsnap will only get better moving forward.

“That’s huge, that’s our step into a professional festival organization. This has been 100% volunteer driven from the get-go and this means we can actually have some paid staff for the first time.”