Hey there, ‘Knifers!
Whew-ee, is Snowking XXiii ever a scorcher! And I’m not just talking about the blazing sun. From the foot-stomping musical acts, to the jaw-dropping aurora shows, to the best darn kids’ play area the Snowking Crew has ever built, the community spectacle that is the Snow Castle has been enjoying a particularly good year so far. We hope you all have been enjoying it, too!
I’d like to take a minute of your time, and a few column inches, away from the hullabaloo to shed some light on the work of some of the more under-sung heroes of the Snowking Crew: the brr-eaucrats. An ode to the paper pushers, if you will.
Every year, long before the Snow Castle starts to rise up from Yellowknife Bay on the backs and shoulders of our hard-working artisans, a motley crew begins to assemble in Snowking's World Headquarters to sort out the task of hosting a month-long festival. This is my first year as one of them, and the experience of sitting on the Snowking board of directors has really lifted some of the snow blindness off my eyes – it takes a lot more than building a castle and opening the doors to make this thing happen.
It takes a plan. It takes hundreds of hours, most of them volunteer, to organize, to coordinate, to engage, to execute. It takes too many jokes about handing out awards that say “this meeting could have been an email.” And oh my, does it take emails – thousands and thousands of them. So many that if you lose a thread, you may never find it again in the tangled spider web that is the electronic paper trail left in the wake of Snowking's Winter Festival.
There were quite a few patches pinned this year to brr-eaucrats and coordinators who stepped up in a big way to fill the giant boot-steps of former executive director Frida Frost, who used to navigate the murky waters between Snowking and bureaucracy pretty much single handedly. Too many to list here and leave room to say anything else about it.
It’s 2018, and SWF is maturing to keep up with the times. But the magic of Snowking can’t be found in compliance letters. The magic is that this massive, community art project continues to go up every year to mark the end of the deep dark of winter and act as a reminder of the wonderland we’re living in. It’s fun, it’s non-conforming, it’s as non-corporate as it can be while still surviving as an organization, and it’s unabashedly Old Town. I for one would like to see it stay that way for as long as possible.
So here’s to the rule mongers, the misers, the artists and the rebels. And to the wider community of volunteers, supporters and patrons of the Snow Castle. This festival would not exist without all of you.
So if you get a chance, hug a brr-eaucrat. Heck, hug a bureaucrat! There are plenty of ‘em who support the festival in various ways throughout the year.
See you down at the Snow Castle, and don’t forget your sunscreen!