Angry callers still ring the St. Paul Winter Carnival office: “I am absolutely not going to Harriet Island.”
Festival organizers have been hearing it since announcing the move to the riverfront park last fall. When the carnival opens Friday, they’ll learn whether happy converts drown out the naysayers.
In what organizers consider an experiment, they’ve put all official attractions in one place for the first time in decades. Centralizing the attractions will help the festival improve its bottom line, they say, and make it easier for newcomers to find the activities.
“It’s hard to think of the carnival as an event if it’s everywhere,” said carnival historian Bob Olsen. “As a visitor attraction – even for visitors from Bloomington or Lakeville – where do you go to see the carnival? If you see a brochure that shows everywhere, it doesn’t seem like a place.”
But others say they’ll miss the magic of twinkling ice sculptures in Rice Park. St. Paul carver Jim Zupfer feels bittersweet about leaving the “quintessential St. Paul spot” encircled by the Landmark Center, the James J. Hill and public libraries and the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts.
“We’re kind of sad and wondering if it’s going to be the same,” said his wife, Amy Zupfer. “It seems hard to find another atmosphere as striking as Rice Park with all the sculptures lit up.”
Aesthetics aren’t the only concern. Some downtown pub owners are worried about how the move will affect business. Sean O’Byrne, owner of Great Waters Brewing Co., was relieved when officials last year decided against eliminating one of the festival’s twin downtown parades.
Held on both Saturdays of the carnival, the parades usually bring in the busiest crowds of the year for Great Waters – as long as the weather stays nice and cold, O’Byrne said. He’s counting on robust business to return this year.
Still, he considers the move a gamble. From the carnivalgoer’s perspective, he said, “Am I going to want to come downtown for the parade and either walk across a bridge or take a shuttle? I think the hassle factor will keep people away from the island.”
John McDonough, owner of Wild Tymes Bar Grill, fears the opposite.
“I think it will hurt our business because they’re taking away the attractions from downtown,” he said. “I think they’re messing with the tradition that has been around for 121 years.”
Carnival officials have stressed the importance of capturing the interest of kids and newcomers if they want the winter staple to endure. They’re packing the park with popular carnival attractions from years past, including a walk-through ice maze, a giant snow slide and dogsled rallies.
They’ve also tried to make the festival more relevant, offering lessons on climate change and winter survival from explorer Will Steger and a royal coronation featuring Circus Juventas.
Even crooner Jimmy Buffett will have a presence there. Look for giant palm-tree snow sculptures and bubbling hot tubs provided by Buffett’s Margaritaville, a new carnival sponsor.
“If you produce the same thing year after year, who cares?” said Kate Kelly, president and CEO of the St. Paul Festival and Heritage Foundation, which produces the festival. “We need to offer every year more reasons to come and more reasons to sample the fun you can have in winter.”
Kelly said she considers this year’s celebration a testing ground for ideas in 2008, including a Hot Dish Tent offering casseroles and live music. Next year, officials want to build a huge attraction – almost on the same scale as an ice palace – to coincide with the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in St. Paul.
Picture a “city of ice” in Rice Park featuring frozen replicas of Mickey’s Diner and a lobby bar, Kelly said. As soon as next week, visitors will get a sneak peak of the columned ice archways that would line the walkways of the ice city; a few will be on display at the Harriet Island park entrance.
Despite grumblings about change, it won’t be the first time the island will have played host to carnival attractions. Harriet hosted ice palaces in 1988 and 1992. Also in 1988, Mount Vulcanus wowed park visitors.
Former fire king Howie Register recalls the Mount Vulcanus spectacle: “They built a big mound of snow on Harriet Island, and a big mechanical Vulcanus would come out. He’d blow out steam, like a torch, and he’d say, ‘I am Vulcanus Rex, the true king of the Winter Carnival!’ Every hour on the hour, he’d rise out of this volcano. The kids thought it was great.”
In 1916, Louis W. Hill, son of railroad tycoon James J. Hill, transformed Harriet Island into an outdoor sports oasis that included a ski jump, curling, a toboggan slide and an ice palace.
“I like the idea of having lots of activities in the same place so you’re not traipsing around the city,” said Moira F. Harris, author of “Fire Ice: The History of the St. Paul Winter Carnival.”
She said she remembers going to the last island ice palace in 1992 and “wishing there had been more things happening right there,” said Harris, who lives in North Oaks. “What I enjoy the most is the idea of things you can do instead of just see.”
National sponsors apparently agree. Wal-Mart, the Mall of America and Nestle have all signed on to support this year’s carnival, more than doubling the contributions from last year, Kelly said.
But whether this carnival is a success, she said, that’s for the community to decide.
“The new people in St. Paul – the Hmong and the Somali and the Ukrainians – they don’t know what carnival is or what’s the legend,” said Register. “We have to keep tradition and the legend, but I’m not opposed to change as long as it’s for the good of the community.”
Laura Yuen can be reached at lyuen@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5498.
If You Go
What: St. Paul Winter Carnival
When: Friday through Feb. 4
Where: Most activities are on Harriet Island
Online: Visit www.twincities.com for an interactive Harriet Island map. Find the carnival’s site at www.winter-carnival.com. Coming Sunday
Special Pioneer Press section: An 18-page guide to the Winter Carnival, including a Harriet Island map, events list, profiles and features.
Royal sisters: Jessica Gaulke Chayer gave up her Minneapolis Aquatennial crown to deploy to Iraq with the National Guard. Her sister Melissa Gaulke is a Winter Carnival Queen of the Snows candidate.
Sunday Life: Kids taking a few “sick days” from school and other memories of the annual Pioneer Press Treasure Hunt.
First clue: Get started on your hunt for the medallion.
Copyright 2007 Pioneer Press.