Friday, 29 March 2024

Login     |     Logout

2010 Winsted Winter Festival

Winsted Winter Festival Snowmobile Show

Dec. 4th 2010

The Winsted Winter Festival Snowmobile Show was a week away and we started watching the weather forecasts. "A chance of snow and highs in the 30s" it sounded perfect, a little snow to set the mood. As the show date approached the weather forecast changed...as they always do. Now the forecast was for a Winter Storm Warning and 6-8 inches of snow. It is ironic that a large snowfall isn't necessarily what you want for your snowmobile show. With an annual show the first Saturday in December, we really never had to worry about large amounts of snow. Timing of the storm would be key. According to forecasts it should be ending the morning of the show. A new issue for us to deal with would be timely plowing of a city street we would need for display, and a private plowing service to plow the parking lot. Maybe, just maybe the storm would track further north or south and we'd get less snow. (I can't believe I 'm wishing for "less" snow) No such luck. Winsted was ground zero for the largest snowfall amount of the storm. WCCO radio reported 13 inches of snow in the Lester Prairie and Winsted area. Thanks to great support from the community, snow removal was taken care of and our 3rd annual show was on.

The city of Winsted has held a winter festival for 22 years as a Chamber of Commerce event. 3 years ago the chamber contacted local antique/vintage collectors with a request for a snowmobile show to be added to their list of events. Events included pictures with Santa, a model train display by the St. Paul Railroad Club, hay rides, and an evening lighted parade. The request came 1 month before the event.

The first step was to contact John Zeglin for help. As luck would have it John was on his way to a meeting where he would put the word out to collectors in the area that might be willing to display their sleds. Area collectors did come to the rescue and that first year we had a nice display.

Year 2 we had award plaques for first place in 8 classes. Participants and spectators voted to determine the winners.

Every year we try to improve the show. With growth and the fact other festival events draw people to the same location; we were outgrowing our current location of the city hall.

Year 3 brought a much needed move to a bigger facility – The Blue Note Ballroom. This provided lots of room for all the events. We reserved a banquet room for the snowmobile portion of the event, other festival activities took place in the ballroom. Nila Hetteen was contacted for vintage videos to show. We expanded the classes to 11 and did 1st and 2nd place awards. To tie into the Winter Festival Parade, we invited the Grand Marshals to choose their favorite snowmobile and award a "Grand Marshal's Choice" award. The show drew about 50 sleds, a nice turnout despite the memorable 13 inch snowfall.

Submitted by Greg Davidson and RickMenden

2010_winsted12010_winsted22010_winsted32010_winsted42010_winsted5.pg2010_winsted72010_winsted6

 

Clear Water Classic Sleds

The Clearwater Classic sleds Club put on a very nice display at the years Baglet Fair. "The response from the fair goers was incedible" according to memeber Tom Lillegaard. Here are some of the picture from thier display.

 

moondance_and_ccs_fair_2010_032moondance_and_ccs_fair_2010_034moondance_and_ccs_fair_2010_039moondance_and_ccs_fair_2010_040

 

2010 Milltown, WI

Milltown USA could have very easily been the theme for this show. I mean they shut down Main Street for the day! The only thing allowed on the street for a couple blocks is Vintage Sleds and of course people enjoying them. The street was filled with spectators of all ages. There were mothers with the young ones in strollers, Grandfathers taking in the day with their Grand Kids, Husband and wives, and Girlfriend holding hands with the boyfriend leisurely walking the street.
This was the town's 100th year celebration and there was plenty of good food and liquid refreshments street side to keep everyone happy. The town had many other events going on as well. To name a few there was Race cars, Show Cars, Tractor shows, Ball tournaments, and a large Arts and Craft show in the park.
The Vintage Sled show had 88 entries with some very high quality sleds ranging from antiques to custom. They held a loud pipe contest with some very interesting set ups. There was a "How Long Will It Run" contest. With only splash of gas in the tank it still made it 8 Minutes. There was a nice hand built tuned pipe on the Single cylinder Rotax so everyone on the street knew when it started and ended!
The fashion show was a hit. The contestants donned there special vintage attire and strutted their stuff up on the stage. The winner was chosen by the loudest applause. This whole show was based on fun. The fashion show definitely added to the fun.
Talk about fun! How many of you have tried your hand at "Helmet Bowling" I was told by the experts that is all in what helmet you chose and the proper wrist action on release. Once you have these two fundamentals down, it is strike after strike.
With the end of a great day near the group held a very nice awards ceremony. They gave out trophies and plenty of them to the very deserving winners.

Thanks to Phil and company for a very fun day!

100_0434100_0448100_0456100_0457100_0460100_0470100_0471100_0475100_0490100_0454

 

2010 haydays

 The official start to winter took place this Sept 11, 2010 at the largest snowmobile event in the world – Haydays! Snowmobile enthusiasts drove from all over the Midwest and even Canada to attend the weekend event.There has been much anticipation for this year's Hay Days event in Linstrom, Minnesota. It's many years in the making with land purchased by the Sno Barons Snowmobile Club, with many volunteered hours to set it up and get it ready. So what's now at Hay Days this year? Aside from a new set of growing pains, we found some cool new items in the vendor area. But before we get into that, we'll touch on some of the challenges we discovered at this year's event. On Saturday the sheriff said that traffic in and out of the festival was backed up for miles on County Road 15. Some event-goers also reported back-ups on County Road 95. The sheriff said, at one point, Interstate 35 was also backed up before North Branch. On Sunday the crowd was smaller and the event went very well.

New for 2010 was the all new ATV testing track near the front gate for event patrons to take a unit for a test drive. They added a new gravel road that cuts through from the front gate to the back of the property. The freestyle area attracted a large crowd like always, with bikes, sleds and quads flying through the air doing their fancy tricks. The rolling hills and trees make Haydays a much better setting. For real, a first ever wedding at Hay Days in the Arctic Cat booth. Arctic Blast Man married Mother Nature! Cool!
For the Vintage sleds Memory Lane found itself in a new demographic location compared to past years being right on the west end of the Drag track. This year's location was well north of the track, with the swap meet on both sides. The tent full of very nice and rare Vintage sleds was well attended though out the weekend.


100_0644100_0636100_0634100_0620100_0616100_0615



Thanks to all the volunteers who work so hard to make this event great! See Ya Next year.

 

We are proud of Valdi!

Some of you know that I am very active in Rotary.  Rotary is a service organization of business professionals that promise high ethical conduct and volunteer service in community and internationally to combat hunger, improve health and sanitation, provide education and job training, and eradicate polio under the motto 'Service Above Self".   Worldwide there are 1.2 million Rotarians in 34,000 clubs.  They tend to be successful women and men who want to give back to society.

Search