Saying Hello to an Old Friend

One of my first memories is of Snowfest, a community festival held annually in Two Rivers, Wisconsin from 1938 with some frequency until 1998. Dad was heavily involved in the Two Rivers Jaycees through the early 1980's and we would see him wearing his red Jaycee's vest on the days that he wasn't bowling at Rudy's Lanes. For us, Snowfest marked the beginning of summer, which was punctuated by scenes of my parents putting on t-shirts and change belts to volunteer in one beer tent or another.

The story of Snowfest is very folksy and the type of story that you find in most small towns. A Public Works Administration work crew was digging for a park project on Two Rivers' south side in July 1936 when they found a large pile of snow buried several feet underground. The city was also celebrating its centennial that year and the snow was prominently featured in its festivities.

This cemented the city's early reputation as the "coolest spot in Wisconsin," which fueled its tourism marketing for the next half century. The first Snow Festival, or Snowfest was held the following year and eventually moved to include the city's Independence Day festivities.

My personal history with Snowfest begins in 1981, or around the time this photo was taken.

I remember winning a goldfish from a carnival game and walking under the rainbow sign that welcomed visitors to the festival, held in Neshotah Park. The festival welcomed thousands of visitors and included a Saturday morning parade punctuated by a polar bear mascot riding on a pile of snow (or shaved ice) in the back of a Public Works plow truck, happily showering the crowds as the parade made its way along Washington Street.

The festival's demise is synonymous with the city's demise in the 1990's as the Jaycees' membership age limit of 35 meant that the organization could not be sustainable. The city also saw a period of industrial dislocation and the sponsorship support from the business community weakened. For those of us who came of age during that period, we remembered how much fun we had every summer but knew we would never enjoy the festival as our parents did and hear the same bands.

We started to think about bringing Snowfest, or something like it back three years ago. Other groups have tried to do so over the years but never gained much traction. My brother returned to the area in 2005 and I moved back in 2015. We knew we wanted to do something big to give back to our hometown. We found a group of dedicated friends that felt the same.

It is in that spirit that we will be bringing Snowfest, the polar bear, and parade back to Two Rivers July 23-25 to mark the city's 185th birthday. We have a lineup of eighteen amazing bands performing along with family activities, food and beverage from across the state, and a regional art fair. This will all happen against the backdrop of Lake Michigan at and near the best beach in Wisconsin.

We would love to find partners that share a passion for these stories. We are focusing our festival on building stewardship for the community's parks and service organizations. We want to inspire others in communities to look at festivals of the past and find ways to build more ways to bring people together.

If your company or brand wants to help us say hello to an old friend, we're all ears.