What To Expect At St. Cloud's Bold And Bright Winter Festival

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- The third annual Bold and Bright winter festival is in downtown St. Cloud next weekend.

One of the new events this year is a comedy crawl. Visit Greater St. Cloud Executive Director Rachel Thompson says most of the shows will be free for you to attend.

All of the formats of the shows are going to be the same. A host with three supporting acts. You'll be able to see a variety through the course of the evening, if you want to go from one to another, you can, or just go to one. They are programmed at the top of every hour, and they are an hour-and-a-half show.

Shows are at 5:00 p.m. at the B-Side Indie Music Cafe, 6:00 p.m. at The Pickled Loon, 7:00 p.m. at Iron Street Distillery, 8:00 p.m. at Arroy Thai and Filipino Restaurant. There is one comedy show that requires a ticket that is at 9:00 p.m. at the Red Carpet Main Stage, featuring host Adrian Washington.

Lake George will be buzzing with activity next Saturday during the third annual Bold and Bright winter celebration. Thompson says there will be a beer garden and open skating throughout the day.

The beer gardens are like what you'd expect at Summertime By George, where it's an area of confinement, but it's pretty open. So, we'll have beverages for open skate. Free skate rental with a limited supply at the warming house.

There will also be a pond hockey tournament running from 8:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. There is an 18-team cap with some openings yet for teams. It is a four-on-four tournament with up to six players on a team. The cost is $300 per team, and you can sign up through this Monday.

There is a Mac and Cheese Crawl and various locations throughout the downtown.

It is 10 locations, four-ounce samples at each, which means you get 40 ounces of mac and cheese, so the equivalent of more than two full-plate entrées at a restaurant. They are all unique and it's your job to pick your favorite.

Thompson says tickets are $30 each and you are encouraged to buy them in advance as they are about half sold out already. The Mac and Cheese Crawl will run from 11:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. on Saturday. The winning restaurant will be announced at the end of the parade on Saturday night.

Full Schedule

You can do a lot of shopping on Saturday during the third annual Bold and Bright winter celebration. The Winter Farmer's Market will be from 9:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. at B-Side Music Cafe. Rachel Thompson says they will have a Winter Market throughout the Red Carpet with over 40 vendors.

Every inch of that place is going to be covered, with makers markets, goodies, and sorts of wonderful things. They will also have the bars open so you can sip and shop.

That event will run from 11:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. on Saturday. Llamas will be outside of Metz and Company from 11:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m.

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Get your creative juices flowing and enter the first Toboggan Derby Relay on Saturday. The event is part of the third annual Bold and Bright Winter Festival in downtown St. Cloud. Thompson says they are accepting pre-registrations through 5:00 p.m. this Friday.

It is a team of three. It is free to participate. You have to make some sort of apparatus that you can push, pull, or crawl your team across the finish line, going down St. Germain Street.

There will be awards for the most creative toboggan as well as winners for all of the heats. The derby starts at 6:00 p.m. on St. Germain Street, followed by the parade at 7:30 p.m. and the fireworks over Lake George at 8:30 p.m.