WinterFest 2015 wrap-up

Cazenovia’s annual Winter Festival certainly lived up to its name this year, as the temperatures stayed frigid and the snow just kept falling — but local residents were out of their houses, in the street and participating in large numbers in the weekend’s events.

“WinterFest was a great success this year and Mother Nature certainly cooperated to make it ‘wintery!’ It was great to see so many people out at all the events escaping from ‘cabin fever’ and seeing their neighbors,” said Mayor Kurt Wheeler. “On behalf of the village, I would like to thank all the groups who organized events to bring our community together.”

The festivities began Thursday, Feb. 5, with local ice skating and the gala for the Winter Festival Art Exhibit, but they moved into high gear Friday night at the festival’s opening ceremony with the annual crowning of the festival king and queen and the student talent show.

The opening ceremony, which took place at the Cazenovia High School auditorium, began with the crowning of the king and queen. Last year’s “royal court,” Fritz and Elizabeth Koennecke, passed their crowns to their 2015 successors, Cindy and Jim Tobey, as selected by popular vote. The new and former kings and queens then acted as judges for the talent show.

Masters of Ceremony Sam Langan and Grace Milmoe then took charge and guided the capacity audience through the evening’s many talented acts of student musicians, singers and dancers. Milmoe and Langan were supported in their duties by sophomore Megan Henderson, who donned a snowman costume and kept the audience laughing and enthusiastic with her jumping, dashing, dancing and other entertaining and hilarious antics in between acts.

The show offered 16 acts from students in grades six through 12 through two acts, punctuated with an intermission during which members of Project Café, who sponsored the evening, provided refreshments.

After more than one hour of varied entertainment, all of which received loud cheers and huge applause from the audience, the judges announced eight awards and the audience selected the People’s Choice winner for the evening by the volume of their applause.

The night’s awards were:

—Best entrance: The Cazenovia Chamber Choir, who performed the song “Fix You.”

—Most soulful: Elora Wimot, who performed the song, “The Hanging Tree.”

—Best vocal group: Madeline McGreevy and Olivia Emerson, who performed the song “Darlin.”

—Most original: D.J. Hopkins, who performed his original piano composition, “Emotional Memories.”

—Most heartwarming: Hailey Shon, who performed the song, “Stay With Me.”

—Best individual dance: Eli Hunt, who performed “Extraterrestrial Legendary Intelligence.”

—Best group dance: Skyler Grimes and Clari Atherlay, who danced “Chandelier.”

Best vocal solo: Maddie Meigs, who performed the song, “On My Own.”

¬—The People’s Choice Award went to Alli and Kayla Karmis, who performed the song, “Riptide.”

Sponsors for the Cazenovia Winter Festival Talent Show were: Caz Pizza, Kinney Drugs, Tops, Cazenovia Candy Shoppe, Chocolate Pizza, Matthews Salon, Pewter Spoon and Project Café. The Cazenovia Central School District administration allowed the use of the high school auditorium for the evening, and Colleen Karmis volunteered as the parent/adult advisor for the student-run show.

Snow sculpture competitions

The annual Scholastic Snow Sculpture Construction competition took place as scheduled — due to an abundance of snow — in the Memorial Park area on Albany Street. Student teams by grade, in grades eight through 12, all constructed snow sculpture based around the theme of food. Many of the teams started their works as early as 6 a.m., while the judging occurred at noon.

He results of the student competition were:

—First place: Eighth grade, who made a yellow-frosted cupcake.

—Second place: Ninth grade, who made a fruit platter dominated by a huge pineapple with icicles used as the leaves on top.

—Third place: Twelfth grade, who made a large, yellow, multi-layered birthday cake.

—Fourth place: Tenth grade, who made a banana split.

—Fifth place: Eleventh grade, who made a watermelon slice.

For the community snow sculpture competition, which occurred throughout the village and was open to families, community groups or businesses, only a few entries were created:

—The Cazenovia Yacht Club created a mural on a snow bank in Albany Street adjacent to the Telephone Park parking lot.

—Resident Wayne Daniels sculpted a face in a snow bank in Albany Street adjacent to the Telephone Park parking lot.

—The Smith, Santiago and Miller families collaborated on a sculpture of Marshmallow, the snow monster from the movie “Frozen,” in front of the house at 55 Lincklaen Street.

The results of the community snow sculpture competition had not been obtained by the Cazenovia Republican as of press time.

Fat Bike Race

A new addition to the Winter Festival activities this year was the Fat Bike Race and Demo on Sunday, Feb. 8, sponsored by Syracuse Bicycle and Empire Brewery. A “fat bike” will be considered any bike that has two tires at least 3.7 inches wide.

The races this past weekend, which occurred on trails around the Lorenzo and the future Empire Farmstead property, included a sport (45 minutes) and expert (90 minutes) divisions, during which riders sought to log the most laps in the allotted time. There were 43 racers, men and women of all age groups, who participated in the race.

“This is a fabulous turnout,” said Trish Duggan, co-owner of Syracuse Bicycles. “I think Fat Biking is definitely growing in popularity for a lot of reasons: it’s a great way to stay fit and get outside — and we’re certainly not lacking for challenging conditions in Central New York I’d say the sport has quadrupled in popularity during the past three years.”

Results for the first annual Winter Festival Fat Bike Race were:

Expert Race – 90 minutes

Men’s Masters Category (age 40 and older)