This year my family decided to check out the Silver Skate Festival in Hawrelak Park. On Feb 9th, in -30° weather we all bundled up and headed out after supper.
The main daytime activities had ended at 5pm, but we were going with the intent to see the fire sculpture.
When we arrived at the park it was quite dark and the signs for the entrance to the parking lot were not lit up in anyway, quite small and hard to see in the dark. We ended up having to drive around the entire park as we missed the entrance and it's only one way traffic. Once we finally parked we had to cross the park to find the tent we were looking for.
They had a tent where you could make a lantern to carry in their procession to the fire sculpture. We made it just in time to each make a lantern. They were nice simple lanterns made out of a watch battery, led light, bamboo stick, tape and some packing foam wrap.
When we were finished our lanterns, we headed over to the storytelling tent just in time to hear the story of The Land of the Golden Apples. The storytellers were very animated, did a great job and you could tell they were having as much fun telling the story as we were having fun listening to them.
After the story, we warmed up by an outdoor fire as we waited for the lantern walk.
The folk trail performers led the walk with lights and drums, through the folk trail that was all decorated with elements from the story they had told us in the tent.
As we were walking I asked Emma what she thought of the evening so far. She exclaimed, "this is the best night ever!" The boys were all smiles and thought it was pretty cool too.
At the end of the trail, they led us to the fire circle where an artist had spent the day building a sculpture out of wood. The sculpture was of a castle tower.
The kids really enjoyed the experience. We didn't wait to see the entire sculpture burn down, but it was completely engulfed in flames when we left it.
Since everything for families was already shut down for the night we headed home. On the way we stopped for donuts at Tim Hortons and made hot chocolate when we got home to help us warm up.
We want to check out some of the daytime activities next time we visit and hopefully it won't be so cold.
The main daytime activities had ended at 5pm, but we were going with the intent to see the fire sculpture.
When we arrived at the park it was quite dark and the signs for the entrance to the parking lot were not lit up in anyway, quite small and hard to see in the dark. We ended up having to drive around the entire park as we missed the entrance and it's only one way traffic. Once we finally parked we had to cross the park to find the tent we were looking for.
They had a tent where you could make a lantern to carry in their procession to the fire sculpture. We made it just in time to each make a lantern. They were nice simple lanterns made out of a watch battery, led light, bamboo stick, tape and some packing foam wrap.
When we were finished our lanterns, we headed over to the storytelling tent just in time to hear the story of The Land of the Golden Apples. The storytellers were very animated, did a great job and you could tell they were having as much fun telling the story as we were having fun listening to them.
After the story, we warmed up by an outdoor fire as we waited for the lantern walk.
The folk trail performers led the walk with lights and drums, through the folk trail that was all decorated with elements from the story they had told us in the tent.
As we were walking I asked Emma what she thought of the evening so far. She exclaimed, "this is the best night ever!" The boys were all smiles and thought it was pretty cool too.
At the end of the trail, they led us to the fire circle where an artist had spent the day building a sculpture out of wood. The sculpture was of a castle tower.
The kids really enjoyed the experience. We didn't wait to see the entire sculpture burn down, but it was completely engulfed in flames when we left it.
We want to check out some of the daytime activities next time we visit and hopefully it won't be so cold.
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