Plans to bring 'crokicurl' to Saskatoon for WinterShines festival in 2018
It's a combination of crokinole and curling and it's being given the coveted label of being "so Canadian."
"Crokicurl" combines two of this country's much-loved pastimes and work is underway to bring it to Saskatoon next winter.
PotashCorp WinterShines festival organizer Shad Ali confirmed on Sunday there were plans to bring the ice game to public spaces in 2018.
The melding of the beloved game and the treasured sport has generated a lot of excitement since it materialized near a popular Winnipeg shopping district recently.
Crokicurl super-sizes the original game on ice so it can be played with stones instead of discs, demanding a little more physical strength and precision from its players.
Super-sized crokinole on ice
Ali said it was capturing Canadian hearts and sparking a conversation about what it means to be Canadian.
"There is a lot of conversation now about what is really Canadian, what makes us Canadian, what makes us feel Canadian, so I think that certainly is top of mind for people," said Ali.
"And certainly something like this is something that causes a large group of people to kind of get 'Wow, this does seem like it represents who we are' and it gets people together and it crosses all kinds of boundaries."
Site yet to be chosen
Ali said WinterShines festival partners had already expressed interest in facilitating public crokicurl.
Although a location hasn't been chosen, Kiwanis Park, Riversdale and park areas in the Broadway Improvement District are among the sites being considered.
Ali said crokicurl is one way the festival is planning to introduce longer-term winter activities that extend beyond the festival program, which lasted eight days in 2017.
Although warm winter temperatures created some problems for the festival organizers this year, and also damaged the ice game in Winnipeg, Ali was not concerned about the risk that the life-size board game could melt away.
"It may mean that it's out of circulation for a few days or something like that, and then we come back at it and get it hardened up," he said.
"The last three winters, anyway, we've had issues with the varying temperatures and severity of our winter."
Making more winter fun
He said festival organizers had been looking to other communities for ideas on how to offer public activities that can be enjoyed throughout the winter, such as a simplified version of a curling rink in Jasper.
There is also discussion about ways to incorporate the city's business improvement districts and facilitate winter cycling, lighting projects and plans to utilize the Meewasin trail.
City councilor Darren Hill said that Saskatoon could learn from Winnipeg and other cities how to bring additional winter activities to the city.
In Winnipeg, Hill liked how artists and architects were engaged to build six new warming shacks along the Red River Mutual Trail for the Warming Huts Art + Architecture Competition.
Ali expects crokicurl will be a popular part of the festival plan.
"Something like crokicurl, will certainly be, we know that there's lots of interest, everybody seems to enjoy it, the idea of it anyway, then we want to get it," said Ali.
