Residents of Sioux Lookout are being invited to celebrate the winter with the Sioux Mountain Winter Festival starting on Thursday.

The municipality said it’s been some time since the community has a winter festival event, which is why it and the Sioux Lookout Chamber of Commerce have paired up to organize the four-day event.

Rony Chakraborty, the recreation and cultural manager for Sioux Lookout, said they’ve been planning the event since January .

“We were kind of having a chat and this came up in a meeting and that's where it actually started,” he said. “And that's what we're trying to do, start at a small scale, because after COVID people have been inside the house is for long enough and now it's high time to give them this place to come out and enjoy.”

Chakraborty said among the highlights during the festival will be a snow sculpture contest, a pickleball tournament, and activities run by the Sioux Lookout Public Library including a superhero party for kids and a cardboard box sliding party.

Other activities include a learn to curl event, polar bear dip, learning winter survival techniques at Cedar Bay, and donut day and the great bean hunt by the Hub Collective coffee shop.

People will also get a chance to meet Jesse Terry and Mary England who are back from success at a major sled dog competition, he said.

Some events are free, while there are costs for others.

Chakraborty said he’s most looking forward to seeing a lot of people come out and participate in the different activities.

"This is something what we're looking to [continue] every winter,” he said. “We have the Blueberry Festival, which happens during mid-summer, but we don't have something to be proud about early spring and late winter.”

He said people in Sioux Lookout get excited about opportunities provided for them to do.

“That's the good part about our town here,” he said. “They appreciate that.”

He said there’s been a good outpouring of interest about the winter festival noting the Facebook page went live on Sunday and has already gotten 700 views.

For more information about the Sioux Mountain Winter Festival and a run-down of events, visit the Facebook page.

Eric Shih, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Thunder Bay Source