Winter Carnival highlights creative art forms

Event features ice displays, parades

An artist works on his ice sculpture at the 2017 St. Paul Winter Carnival. The Carnival is located at Rice Park in St. Paul.

An artist works on his ice sculpture at the 2017 St. Paul Winter Carnival. The Carnival is located at Rice Park in St. Paul.

Junior Charlie Schuebel said by attending the St. Paul Winter Carnival he felt included by the community and enjoyed the activities it had to offer.

“(I felt) a part of the community because there are a lot of people there and a lot of people lined up to see the parade across the street,” Schuebel said.

Schuebel said his favorite activity at the Winter Carnival was the ice sculpting competition.

“It’s nice because you get to see all the ice sculptures and the people working on them and it’s interesting because people can make sculptures from ice and I wouldn’t have thought that’s possible, but it is,” Schuebel said. “It was extremely interesting and (it also featured) a very large, fun parade.”

Winter Carnival event manager Matt Drewek said the Carnival is a fun activity for people of all ages.

“Rice Park is sort of the center for the Winter Carnival. There we’ve got exhibitors and vendors as well was live entertainment (and) ice sculptures,” Drewek said.

Drewek said teenagers can participate in the Carnival by joining the junior royalty program, which is based on the legend of King Boreas.

“The St. Paul Winter Carnival is based on the legend of King Boreas, which started 131 years ago. He is one of the gods of Olympus that travels the world and finds Minnesota and decides to (make) it his winter capital,” Drewek said. “There is King Boreas and his four brothers, the princes of the four winds, and then there is also the junior royalty which are teenagers and kids.”

Drewek said teenagers can apply to be junior royalty at Winter Carnival events.

Volunteer Gene Hughes, who was a Carnival princess in 2001, said she has participated in many aspects of the Carnival throughout the years of its showing.

Hughes said the Winter Carnival celebrates and contributes to the community’s history.

“It’s just all around a nice story and a nice way to celebrate St. Paul and it’s just nice to keep that history going,” Hughes said.

Drewek said the Carnival brings communities together and involves different people in many ways.

“I think that St. Paul and the Winter Carnival has always been about bringing communities together, and it’s a very welcoming community, and really what it aims to do is to bring people together in winter and get people outside and get them excited to have fun and be together,” Drewek said.

Senior Meybelyn Mendoza said she can imagine herself at the St. Paul Winter Carnival, watching the ice sculpting competition and enjoying the art.

Mendoza said she never attended an event like the Winter Carnival before, and her passion for art makes the Carnival interesting.

“I am into art and drawing and seeing different sculptures,” Mendoza said.

Hughes said the the festival is a great place for art to flourish and she said she admires the ice sculptures at the festival.

Hanna Schechter
King Boreas and the Snow Queen take part in the 131st St. Paul Winter Carnival. The Carnival features many parades.

“The first thing that jumps out at me would be the ice sculptures. The time, the care and the science behind (the sculptures and) to sit back and applaud and appreciate what these people do,” Hughes said.

Schuebel said there was an interesting part of the parade where a truck drove by sputtering out fire.

“(It was) like a hot air balloon but without the air balloon so it was just like fire being sputtered out and you could feel the fire from where you were and it was nice and warm,” Schuebel said.

Drewek said the Winter Carnival embodies art through the legend of King Boreas and through its people.

“This year we’ve gotten a local artist that has lighted the landmark center for the 10 days of carnival in different colors and patterns,” Drewek said. “The legend and the characters in the legend tend to embody these characters and it’s very theracterical. So really the arts are encompassed in many different ways in the carnival.”

The St. Paul Winter Carnival is located at Rice Park in St. Paul and is open until Sunday, Feb. 5.