Council staff detail 2024 High on Ice Festival outcome and year-long planning process

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — Fort St. John council received a presentation showing the year-long process and goals of the 2024 High on Ice Festival during their March 25th Committee of the Whole meeting.

Eryn Griffith, the city’s arts and culture manager, outlined the event’s planning timeline and goals over the year leading up to the festival. 

Fort St. John’s signature winter event is the High on Ice Festival, held every February. It features special activities such as ice carving, ice slides, and more. 

This year, staff navigated the changing logistics due to the warm weather and other external factors. 

The festival included the Where the Wild Things Are event, the Tunnel of Interaction and the always popular ice slide. 

Staff recorded 6,468 people going through the tunnel and 12,083 turns on the ice slide during the festival runtime. 

June and July are when staff start planning for the upcoming year’s event.

According to Griffith, from August to September, the city begins planning the next festival by signing contracts with artists, hiring a site crew, booking ice shipments for the ice carvers, arranging sponsorships, and making an operations plan. 

From October through December, staff implement sponsorship and operational plans and coordinate micro-event grants. 

Staffing plans for the festival are implemented in January, along with sponsorship, financials and logistics are solidified as well.

February is when the operations crew is on the site setting up until the festival’s opening.

“Before the event begins, staff are in the park for two and a half weeks providing support to the artists and the site crew,” said Griffith.

“After the event ends, staff spend the last ten days disassembling the parks,” Griffith continued. 

She says they focused on two primary goals for the festival this year. 

The first goal was to increase accessibility and provide barrier-free opportunities for residents by offering free bussing, prizes, and activities throughout the weekend, as well as sensory tools, and ensuring accessible pathways to participants. 

The second goal was to increase interactive amenities, which included improving the ‘little chippers wall,’ allowing kids to play, chip, and create with ice by increasing the tool supply and expanding the wall size. 

Next year will mark the 20th anniversary of the High on Ice Festival. 

Council thanked Griffith for her presentation, saying they look forward to next year’s special anniversary.

“At no point did I ever think we would have the only snow in the entire Peace region at this event,” councillor Trevor Bolin joked.

The full Committee of the Whole meeting can be viewed below: