After a subdued celebration in 2021, Newport’s annual Winter Carnival is coming back in full force.
Festivities for the 106th annual event begin Thursday and continue through Sunday. The majority of the programs take place on the Common and surrounding locations. A full schedule of events can be found at newportrec.com. This year’s theme is “Out of the Woods.” When the planning process began last year, the thought was the theme would refer to the end of the pandemic.
“We were thinking we would be out of the woods” with COVID-19, said Beth Rexford, who has helped organize the Winter Carnival since joining the Newport Recreation Department in 1994. “Now we’re calling it out of the woods and making it about lumberjacks because we’re certainly not out of the woods.”
The majority of the Winter Carnival events — which is co-hosted by the Newport Recreation Department and Newport Chamber of Commerce — take place outside. Hundreds of people are expected to attend. Among the highlights this year are woodsman games hosted by students at the Sugar River Valley Regional Technical Center, an Icelandic Stone lift competition and the “ALL TERRAIN Lumber Jack & Jill 500” race. Participants are encouraged to wear finest work boots and flannel while competing.
“We kind of expected to be out of the woods with COVID by now, but we’re not. But we’re going to celebrate like we are anyway,” said Newport Recreation Director PJ Lovely. The theme is a nod to Newport’s heritage. “We have a lot of people who are blue collar workers here and we wanted to celebrate the woods.”
Food also plays a large role in the event. This year there will be a flapjack eating contest and a Mac ’n’ Cheese Cook-off. Other events, such as a scavenger hunt and orienteering course, can be completed anytime participants want throughout the weekend.
The parade is sure to be a draw. As of Tuesday afternoon, 75 groups had registered. Lovely and Rexford expected that number to climb, as people do not have to register to participate in the parade. While the parade took place last year, it was more subdued.
“This year we wanted to bring it back in regular form,” Lovely said. “It’s going to be a big parade.”
The only thing that’s questionable is the weather: Many activities are centered around the ice rink on the Common, including a midnight skating event scheduled Friday night. If the ice is too soft, that will be replaced with an outdoor dance.
“Mother Nature has added a few degrees to her forecast which always wreaks havoc on the ice,” Lovely said. “We’re protecting it right now in hopes that we can skate on it this weekend.”
In years past, organizers have introduced events that are less ice- and snow-reliant — soccer and kickball have taken the place of broom hockey, for example.
“You still utilize the space, but you just change up what goes on the space instead of skates,” Lovely said.
When he joined the department 29 years ago, there was never a question of having enough snow or ice for various events.
“Certainly the weather definitely is changing,” Lovely said. “In the last 10 to 15 we’ve struggled.”
Regardless of the weather, Winter Carnival is sure to draw people to downtown Newport.
“The whole weekend,” Rexford said when asked what her favorite part of Winter Carnival is. “I just love winter carnival and seeing people out and about so to me that’s exciting.”
Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.
