John McKinnon of Nelson works on his “piece of Canadiana–a maple leaf, moose, beaver snow sculpture. Photos 250News

Prince George, B.C. – Thousands of people headed to Veterans’ Plaza at City Hall on Sunday to check out the first-ever Downtown Winter Carnival in Prince George.

There wasn’t the typical opening ceremony with dignitaries welcoming people to the city’s core.  Instead, Downtown Prince George General Manager Colleen Van Mook said the idea was just to let people drop by, see what was going on and enjoy themselves at a winter event.  She said this year’s inaugural event was “a beginning, a start.”  Perhaps it will grow in stature as has the popular Summerfest.

Younsgters had a great time on the snow slide, the train and just sitting on a pile of snow shooting the breeze.

Visitors had plenty to look at, from very impressive artistic endeavors in ice, snow and wood formats by sculptors John McKinnon, Peter Vogelaar and conceptual land-based artist David Jacob Harder to the crowd-drawing S’mores competition.  There were snow sport demonstrations, a snow slide, the Cottonwood Express mini-train track was laid out on 6th Avenue in front of the Farmers’ Market and was well-used.  Several food vendors were on hand, the Market and the Legion both had their doors open and there was lots of music provided by DJ Ant.

David Jacob Harder of Wells called this piece “Then and Now”, an homage to the protection of our forests

Even though the air temperature climbed above the freezing mark, winds gusting from 40 to 60 km/h made it feel as though winter is still here and prevented the ice and snow sculptures and the snow on the ground from turning into slushy puddles.  And that suits a Winter Carnival just fine.