List of winners from annual talent show and snow sculpture competition
Unlike last year’s snowless weekend, the 2017 Cazenovia Winter Festival lived up to its seasonal name — particularly on Sunday, Feb. 12, when nearly a foot of snow fell in a daylong storm.
The festival occurred as planned this year with the annual snow sculpture contests for students and village residents, the talent show, ice skating, skiing, snowshoeing and the usual horse-drawn wagon rides throughout the village, among other activities, on Saturday; while Sunday, Empire Brewing Company hosted its second Fat Tire Race at the farmstead brewery, children 12 and under ran in the annual Snowflake Run around the village green and the library hosted its annual Winter Festival chocolate party.
“The snow arrived just in time to make it a truly wintery weekend! It was a wonderful collection of community activities and a chance for all of us to get out and see our neighbors and have fun,” said Mayor Kurt Wheeler.
The festivities began Thursday, Feb. 9, with the opening of the Winter Festival Art Exhibit and continued Friday night at the festival’s opening ceremony with the annual crowning of the festival king and queen and the student talent show.
Beth and Bill Carroll, last year’s “royal court,” passed the crowns onto their 2017 successors, Gina and Don Raleigh (although Gina was unable to attend the event so Barb Axelson filled in). The foursome then acted as judges for the talent show.
Masters of Ceremony Lucy Connor and Joanna Seeley guided the audience through the evening’s acts of performers. The show offered 16 acts from students in grades five through 12 as well as community members 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 individual vocal: Virginia Soler who performed the song “Accidentally in Love.”
—Best duo dance: Skyler Grimes and Clari Atherlay, who danced “Friends.”
—Best vocal group: Zach Simms, Rory Flannery, Jackson Wright, CJ Monroe and Tim Burr who performed “Please Don’t Stop the Music.”
—Best individual dance: Eli Hunt, who performed “Paradise.”
—Most creative: Jacob Fraser-Gilbert, who performed a poi juggling act called “Mirage.”
—Most soulful: Kayla Karmis, who performed the song, “Love on the Brain.”
—LOL Award: Tyler Cronk who performed a stand-up comedy routine.
—The People’s Choice Award went to McDonalds Irish Step for their dance, “Celtic Tiger.”
Also performing in the talent show were: Betsy Chanatry, Bell Lazarsky, Abby Falso, Sophie Axe, Maya Skeele and Megan Lawton.
On Saturday, Feb. 11, the day’s activities kicked off with Cazenovia High School students in grades eight through 12 seeing which class could create the best snow sculpture under the theme of “toys.” The competition judges, examining the hours of work students put into their creations, awarded the sophomore class’s Mr. Potato Head sculpture first place. The junior class placed second with its rubber ducky sculpture, followed by the eighth grade class’s toy train sculpture. The freshmen class came in fourth with its Lego sculpture, with the senior class’s Rubik’s cube placing fifth.
In the community snow sculpture competition, there was only one entry — made by Garrett Neville and his family, who was visiting his grandfather Richard Neville for the weekend.
