Not the end for Winterfest, council hears

This isn’t the end for the Sundance Winter Festival, the city council heard last week. This year’s event was eventually cancelled, but not due to ongoing issues with finding volunteers to run it; rather, there simply wasn’t enough snow to build a course.

City Attorney Mark Hughes shared his thoughts about this on Tuesday, commenting that it was a “tragedy” the event was not held. Though he said he was aware the cancellation was not actually connected to the loss of the event’s volunteer organizers, it did make clear to him that losing the festival altogether would be bad for Sundance.

Hughes asked the city to consider budgeting an amount such as $10,000 to contribute towards Winterfest each year, to pay for such things as contractors coming in to move the snow.

“I think it’s such a drawing card to this community, I’m hoping the council will consider it,” he said, noting that his personal preference would be to see the event remain on Main Street, where it is a boon to the local businesses, and remain free of an entry fee.

Mayor Paul Brooks agreed that it’s a great way to showcase the community.

Clerk Treasurer Kathy Lenz reassured Hughes that the Sundance Chamber of Commerce has no intention of seeing the festival go away and next year’s festival is still very much on the table. However, she said, it’s not really a matter of money.

“We had plenty of money set aside for that, it’s just there weren’t enough hands to do it,” she said, stating that nobody was available to take on the sizeable amount of work involved in arranging the event, except for Steele Roping, which offered to take it on.

“It does take a heck of a commitment for the people who did run it, I admit that,” said Hughes. However, he said, he would like to see it continue and not be overtaken by similar events in other communities in the region. For that reason, he asked the council to consider keeping it as a line item on the budget and to also consider paying individuals to take on the organization.