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My Year of Festivals #1
Deep Freeze: A Byzantine Winter Festival
This is a cultural festival
I went to my first festival this past Saturday; Deep Freeze: A Byzantine Winter Festival. I’d heard about this one years ago from an article in a newspaper about races in deep freezers. I wasn’t much of a winter-outdoors lover (still not, honestly) so while the idea was neat, it wasn’t cool enough to get me to go.
Until now.
2025 is the eighteenth year of the festival, where they shut down five blocks along Alberta Avenue in Edmonton. The festival is Francophone-themed on Saturday and Ukrainian-themed on Sunday. I went on Saturday because it was going to be -18°C, warmer than Sunday’s temp of -21°C.
The festival itself is free to attend with a few events asking for donations and is a cultural event.
Before I get into anything else, I must say the volunteers did a fantastic job. There were no hiccups with timing or events that I could see, there were people spreading sand and rocks down where it was getting icy, and others kept the path clear of people whenever the horse & wagon came by. Every…
