Nutrien Wintershines Festival kicks off this weekend in Saskatoon

The Nutrien Wintershines Festival starts on Saturday and will feature a number of activities for families.

The outdoor events will take place at Market Square on Avenue A South and 19th Street. Some of those activities include wagon rides, ice carving, a petting zoo, pony rides and face painting.

Shad Ali, the festival’s director, joined Mark Loshack on the CKOM Morning Show to talk about all the events families can go to.

“There’s a ton of stuff going on, as usual,” said Ali.

“Wanuskewin is going to have Kôna (Winter Festival) on, we have hockey games going on, we have all kinds of things.”

There’s also skating available at the Meewasin skating rink downtown.

Ali said three ice carvers are already hard at work making sculptures for the festival.

“We just posted on our social media some of the early carvings,” said Ali. “These guys are already hard at work and it is absolutely spectacular what they are carving out there.”

Ali said there’s a one event planned that he believes many families will be looking forward to

“Tim Yaworski, he’s bringing down a couple of those powerful telescopes,” said Ali.

“I believe he’s going to highlight the moon and Jupiter for sure.”

The telescope stargazing events are set for Friday and Saturday from 5-8 p.m.

There are some indoor events planned as well, including a pair of soup-making competitions.

“We have some of the top chefs in the city that are competing in both these (events),” said Ali.

The open soup competition is on Sunday at TCU Place, then professional chefs will compete on Wednesday for the chance to be named Saskatoon’s soup master.

A full schedule of events can be found online.