Lava Hot Springs to hold ‘Fire & Ice Winterfest’ this weekend
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LAVA HOT SPRINGS — People from all over the country will pour into a small east Idaho town for a winter celebration this weekend.
The city of Lava Hot Springs is holding the “Fire & Ice Winterfest” on Feb. 2-3. People who attend the winter festival will be able to go to beer and wine tastings, meet an abominable snowman and watch fireworks light up the night sky.
“It’s a winter event that is most definitely unlike any other. It’s changing every year and so if you think that you can get the same experience next year, that’s never the case,” said Colin Petrun, President of the Lava Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce and Event Coordinator for the city.
The newest event coming to Winterfest will be a beer tasting from Eruption Brewery & Bistro at 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Friday. This will kick off the year’s Winterfest celebrations.
There will be a wine tasting and a sound and vibration presentation that day.
The events on Saturday will start with the American Legion Waffle and Sausage Breakfast at 8 a.m. As the day proceeds, festival goers will be able to experience the Running of the Bulls, the Children’s Water Carnival, the Polar Bear Float and many more events.
Throughout the day, people will be able to run into a man dressed as the abominable snowman and take pictures with him. If they get tired, they can sit by one of the many fire logs and warm up, or watch fire machines shoot 40 foot flames into the air.
Once the sun goes down, people will witness fire dancers brighten the area and warm the night air with their performance. Afterwords, fireworks will light up the night sky from the North end of town.
Winterfest will officially end with a performance at 8:30 p.m. by Kip Attaway, a country music comedian.
The full schedule of the day’s events can be found on a the Lava Hot Springs website.
Petrun said that Winterfest is a needed event for Lava Hot Springs because it bolsters the local businesses during the wintertime, which is the town’s slowest tourist season.
They expect to have around 2,000 people come through the town for the festival. Petrun said that Winterfest and the Fourth of July are the biggest recorded attendance days for Lava Hot Springs.
While Winterfest is a huge draw for people to come to their “eclectic little community,” Petrun said that the event also helps the local community through the winter.
“Fire & Ice draws not just all these tourists from all over to come and experience this event and our little town in the middle of winter, but it also draws all the locals out, people that are (experiencing) cabin fever,” Petrun said. “It’s that little boost that people need to get them to spring.”