Let's start with the weather forecast: Duluth can expect highs in the low single digits this weekend, according to the National Weather Service.
In other words, perfect weather to kick off something called Cold Front February.
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"That's part of the idea, is to embrace that kind of weather," said Shawna Mullen, active transportation coordinator for Zeitgeist Center for Arts and Community, which is driving the event along with the city of Duluth, Visit Duluth and other organizations.
The new festival, centered in Canal Park, will include bands, fat-tire biking, outdoor curling, a snow play hill, an ice skating track, fire pits and yoga in the snow (aka snoga), among other attractions. Other events will take place elsewhere in the city, such as ice climbing at Quarry Park in West Duluth.
The idea grew out of the $200,000 grant awarded by the Knight Foundation for the "Making Canal Park Pop" project submitted on behalf of the city by City Councilor Elissa Hansen, now the council president. Among other things, the project envisioned "pop-up parks" within Canal Park.
"This is part of the winter pop-up," Hansen said. "This has turned into a bigger winter event, which is super cool, but technically we're still popping up, activating that parking lot for three days."
The parking lot is the one across from Little Angie's Cantina, between the Inn on Lake Superior and Comfort Suites Canal Park. It's being transformed for the weekend into "celebration grounds," with vendors, tents, the snow hill and several fire pits, and it's the festival's centerpiece.
Saturday also is the kickoff for Zeitgeist's Winter Bike Week and will include group bike rides to the Canal Park site from the Rose Garden or the Lincoln Park Business District.
Although originally envisioned as a weekend event, the weekend is now seen as a kickoff to a monthlong Cold Front festival, Mullen said. "We realized there were already a lot of good things happening throughout the month of February, so we thought Cold Front would be a good sort of umbrella to package it all together."
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The kickoff to the kickoff will be what's billed as "Duluth's largest coffee break," at 10 a.m. Thursday at Lake Place Park, with free coffee courtesy of the Duluth Coffee Company and free doughnuts provided by The Greenery.
Duluth Mayor Emily Larson said she's looking forward to that event and to trying ice climbing for the first time during the festival. Larson, Mullen and Hansen all are big on the ice skating trail, which follows the summertime path of the carriage trail.
The trail actually was laid a couple of weeks ago, Hansen said, and although not publicized it's already getting use.
"I think it's brilliant," Larson said of the festival in general. "This is how you can be active outside in the winter. ... The fact is that we are really cold, but we also are cool."
The schedule
Here's a partial schedule of events for this weekend's Cold Front February kickoff. For detailed information, visit coldfrontduluthcom .
Thursday
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- 10 a.m. - Duluth's largest coffee break, Lake Place Park
- 4 p.m. - Duluth's largest happy hour, Grandma's Sports Garden
- 4 p.m. to midnight - Ice track "warming house" with open mic from 8-11 p.m., Endion Station Public House
Friday
- 3-8 p.m. - Celebration grounds in Canal Park open to the public
- 4-8 p.m. - Day Tripper of Duluth fat-tire biking demos, celebration grounds
- 4-8 p.m. - DJ music by Euphoric, celebration grounds
- 5:30 p.m. - G-Crew cold front 5K run, meet at the blue pedestrian bridge
Saturday
- 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. - Celebration grounds open; live music beginning at 5:30 p.m.
- 11 a.m. to midnight - "Warming house" at Endion Station Public House including a 3 p.m. snow sculpture contest and live music at 6 and 8 p.m.
- Noon - Snoga (yoga in the snow) presented by Duluth Yoga Studio in the celebration grounds. Free. Register via the website listed above.
- 2-8 p.m. - Day Tripper of Duluth fat biking demos, celebration grounds
- 8:30 p.m. - Fire dancing by The Spin Collective, celebration grounds.
Sunday
- Celebration grounds open 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. - "Dog Days of Winter," dogs and their people invited to sit around the fire pit at Endion Station Public House, featuring goody bags and coupons from Fitger's "A Place for Fido."
- 2-8 p.m. - Day Tripper of Duluth fat-tire biking demos
