"Winter Carnival" redirects here. For the 1939 film, see Winter Carnival (film).
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A winter festival, winter carnival, snow festival, or frost fair is an outdoor cold weather celebration that occurs in wintertime.
Winter festivals are popular in D climates (see Köppen climate classification) where winter is particularly long or severe, such as Siberia, Scandinavia, Canada and the northern United States. Most winter carnivals involve traditional winter pursuits such as dog sledding, ice hockey, ice carving, skating, skiing, and snow carving.
Some notable winter carnivals include:
World
Winter Olympic Games
Canada
Bon Soo Winter Carnival - held in Sault Sainte Marie, Ontario
Ice on Whyte Festival - held in Edmonton, Alberta
Parc Jean Drapeau Winter Festival - held in Montreal, Quebec
Quebec Winter Carnival - held in Quebec City, Quebec
Snowking Winter Festival - held in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories
Winter Festival of Lights - held in Niagara Falls, Ontario
Winterlude - held in the National Capital Region along the Ontario-Quebec border
China
Changbai Mountain International Winter Carnival - held in Erdaobaihe
Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival - held in Harbin, Heilongjiang
England
River Thames frost fairs - formerly held in London, England between the 17th century and early 19th century
Estonia
Tallinn Christmas Market - held in Tallinn
France
Concours International de Sculpture sur Glace et sur Neige - held in Valloire
Japan
Asahikawa Winter Festival - held in Asahikawa, Hokkaidō
Chitose Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival - held in Chitose, Hokkaidō
Iwate Snow Festival - held in Iwate-gun, Iwate Prefecture
Lake Shikaribetsu Kotan - held on top of frozen Lake Shikaribetsu in Shikaoi, Hokkaidō
Sapporo Snow Festival - held in Sapporo, Hokkaido
Tokamachi Snow Festival - held in Tōkamachi, Niigata Prefecture
Latvia
International Ice Sculpture Festival - held in Jelgava
Norway
Holmenkollen Ski Festival - held in Holmenkollen, Oslo
Ice Music Festival - held in Geilo
Russia
International Festival-Competition of Snow and Ice Sculpture - held in Krasnoyarsk
Perm International Snow and Ice Sculpture Festival - held in Perm
Sweden
Gamla stan Christmas market - held in Gamla stan in Stockholm, Sweden
Jul på Liseberg - held at Liseberg in Göteborg, Sweden
Skansen Christmas market - held at Skansen in Stockholm, Sweden
Swedish Ski Games - held in Falun, Sweden
United States
Annual frost faire at Saratoga National Historical Park - held in Saratoga County, New York
Bavarian IceFest - held in Leavenworth, Washington
Budweiser International Snow Sculpture Championships - held in Breckenridge, Colorado
Dartmouth Winter Carnival - held in Hanover, New Hampshire
Michigan Technological University's Winter Carnival - held in Houghton, Michigan
Saint Paul Winter Carnival - held in Saint Paul, Minnesota
City of Lakes Loppet - held in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Saranac Lake Winter Carnival - held in Saranac Lake, New York
Steamboat Springs Winter Carnival - held in Steamboat Springs, Colorado
Wintersköl™ - held in Aspen, Colorado
World Ice Art Championships - held in Fairbanks, Alaska
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