| 2025 is the 32nd year
for Winterfest in Mackinaw City, Michigan. Due to the lack
of snow the 2025 festival will be a one day chili cook off. Winterfest
has been getting smaller in recent years.
Chili Cook Off: 11:30AM-1PM
The Chili Cook Off is held at Mama Mia's Restaurant at
231 E Central Avenue. Tasting and voting for your favorite chili is only
$5/person. Call (231) 436-5574 to reserve a space to compete.
The Big Freeze Obstacle Course is in the Mackinaw Crossings
parking lot, just west of South Huron. It is open to ages 5 to 17 and advance
registration is available at (231) 436-5664 or events@mackinawcity.com.
On site registration is 10:30-11AM, but only if space is available. Canceled
The 2025 Pepsi International Outhouse Races are
held at Shepler's Parking Lot 556 E Central Avenue and will have a $500
grand prize. Registration is available at (231) 436-5492. Canceled
|
About Mackinaw
City in the Winter
'09 Mackinaw City winter trip report
|
These photos were taken during the 2009 Winterfest when
the weather was beautiful but cold. Saturday was gloomy, but it didn't
seem to dampen the enthusiasm of the people attending the outdoor events.
The bars were packed with participants and snowmobilers. The sunny photos
on this page were taken on Friday. The others were on Saturday afternoon.
Despite the cold, a record 151 people registered to participate
in that year's ninth annual ice fishing tournament on Paradise Lake and
around $1,600 was raised for marine protection programs and projects. The
euchre tournament also had its highest number of competitors ever.
The sign next to this sculpture of the Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw
pleaded for volunteers to help work on the sculpture.
Despite working late into the night, this sculptor did not add all
the details he hoped to include. The actual retired
Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw is docked only a few hundred feet away.
Andrew Brown ice sculpture team starting work on their abstract sphere
2nd place U.S. "Coast Guard cutter Mackinaw" by Larry Strouse of Carp
Lake
1st place winning ice sculpture by Andrew Brown team of Central Lake,
Michigan
3rd place "ship in a bottle" - Tom Lalonde of Cheboygan, Michigan
Chili Cook Off held at Mama Mia's (2020 photo by AM)
Mackinaw City used to have an annual fundraiser where the person that
predicted when the ice tower in front of the village hall would
melt won at least $1,000. The official time was when an electronic
device frozen into the ice drops to the ground.
In 2008 it fell on April 24. (Now one is grown on the shore in
Gary & Gussie Williams Memorial Park.)
Copyright 2009-2025 by Keith
Stokes. These photos may not be reproduced without
written permission. . |
