BELFAST, Maine — When life gives you lemons, make lemonade — and when Mother Nature drops a bonanza of blizzards on your city, start a snow festival.
That’s the way Belfast Parks and Recreation director Norm Poirier is interpreting the old adage, anyway, as he works on the first annual Snowball Winter Festival, scheduled to take place from 1-4 p.m. Sunday afternoon.
“We’ve got plenty of snow. Maybe too much,” he said Monday, only half-joking. “I don’t want to say I’m to blame for too much snow, but when we started planning this back around Christmas, we didn’t really have expectations we’d have this much snow. This is wonderful.”
Unlike many Maine communities, Belfast doesn’t have a current tradition of winter festivals. Poirier said that for the last couple of years, he’s been thinking about getting something started, and settled on the ice rink and sports fields adjacent to Waterfall Arts as a good location.
“To get some kids out, do some snowshoeing,” he said. “We’ll have a number of events. We’ll have ice skating at the rink, and a puck shooting contest at the rink. We have some wonderful mounds — or mountains — of snow. People will need to bring their own sleds.”
People also can dig into the snow to do some “informal sculpting,” he said, and can make art by throwing colored snowballs at a canvas.
“I’m hoping to get a few hundred people and that [the event] will be the start of something that will grow in future years,” Poirier said.
The city will have snowshoes available through Waldo County General Hospital’s Journey to Health program, he said, and the city will provide warming snacks including hot chocolate, hot cider and hot dogs. Attendees will be able to warm chilly hands over one or two small bonfires, Poirier said, and also enjoy some indoor activities at Waterfall Arts, including listening to the Belfast Bay Fiddlers.
The festival is going to happen on a shoestring, with its official budget coming in under $200, and most of that money will go to food, Poirier said. That’s possible because it is a collaborative effort between the city, the Waldo County YMCA and Waterfall Arts.
“That’s something I’m hoping to do more of,” he said. “Being a one-person show here, I’ve got to do that in order to do these types of community events. I’m always looking for partners.”