Snow Biz, Winter Fest set for different sites, different weekends

Wednesday, November 15, 2017
Jesse Horne | WEAU

EAU CLAIRE COUNTY, Wis. (WEAU) -- In recent years, the United Cerebral Palsy's annual Snow Biz has happened the same weekend as the Northwest Wisconsin Winter Fest and Games festival on Lake Altoona.

UCP of West Central Wisconsin, however, is looking to move Snow Biz back close to its roots.

For years, the event was located in Brackett. Starting next year, it will be held at the Cleghorn School Park.

"Cleghorn had approached us years before the Winter Fest event and had planted the seed in so we just decided to make the move," Gene Amann, with UCP of West Central Wisconsin, said to WEAU 13 News on Wednesday.

The move means Winter Fest will have Lake Altoona for itself and those tied to the event say they have some new things lined up.

"We're hoping to bring in some bigger acts than what we've brought in in the past," Brian Sandy, promotions manager with the Eau Claire Press Company, one of the organizations tied to the event, said to WEAU 13 News on Wednesday. " We're working on that right now. We should be releasing our full lineup probably in about a week. So we're excited about that."

Sandy says they're looking to add ice bowling to the 2018 edition of Winter Fest.

For the last few years, the two events were held together at Lake Altoona on the same weekend. For UCP of West Central Wisconsin, it's not necessarily saying 'goodbye' to what Winter fest has provided them, but more 'welcome back' to what Cleghorn can now give them with Snow Biz.

Amann says the move will consolidate the UCP telethon with all of the outdoor events snow biz was created around.

"We outgrew the size of our needs. We needed more places to park and ... really it was more of a parking issue than anything else," Amann said.

WEAU is once again a sponsor of Snow Biz, which will be January 27th at Cleghorn School Park.

The Northwest Wisconsin Winter Fest and Games festival will be February 2nd and 3rd - once again, scheduled on Lake Altoona.

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