PHOTOS: Valley First Frost Fest 2025

In January of 2024, the City of Penticton did something it hadn't done before. It debuted a downtown festival smack dab in the middle of the coldest, quietest time of the year.

We're talking the void between New Year's and Valentine's – a time when the streets are traditionally empty and folks looking to escape the winter blahs typically flee to the mountains or the tropics.

But with the first-ever "Frost Fest," held January 20, 2024 at Gyro Park and the adjacent outdoor ice rink, the City planned to change all that – if just for a day.

The event would revolve around three pillars – a "rail jam" snowboarding competition on a temporary hill built from shipping containers just a hundred meters from City Hall, an afternoon of BCHL All-Star festivities at the outdoor rink, and a family zone organized by festival partner HaHaHa Penticton Kidzfest.

Ultimately, the fledgling Frost Fest was a triumph.

Over at the rink, spectators got a day-long dose of fun that featured some of the best junior players in the province and a healthy allotment of celebrated ex-NHLers. In the family zone, kids and parents alike cavorted through the attractions amidst a surprise fresh snowfall. And when the sun set, the lights came on and the boarding hill came alive with the sights and sounds of the first-ever Peach City Rail Jam.

When it was all over, event director and Penticton Sport and Event Supervisor Jeff Plant said it "blew away" his expectations and advised it'd be back in 2025.

Plant was right. And this past weekend, version #2 of the event, now with a title sponsor and named "Valley First Frost Fest Winter Carnival," once again attempted to turn a quiet downtown into a crowded winter wonderland.

Indeed, it would ambitiously expand on the original.

Instead of a single day, it would unfold over three. Instead of sticking to Gyro, it would stretch out to include Okanagan Lake Park and even Okanagan Lake itself.

New concepts would include a hot air balloon "glow-up" near the beach, an extension of the family zone onto Main Street, a movie night at Cleland Theatre, and a Sunday pancake breakfast and polar bear swim.

And we were there for just about all of it.

The 2025 festival kicked off late Friday afternoon at Okanagan Lake Park, where the plan was to inflate all those hot air balloons.

Though they'd be kept safely tethered to the ground, in the darkness they'd "glow" from the flames of their propane burners. It would be a spectacular sight.

Alas, it was not to be. Just prior to the scheduled start time, organizers made the tough decision to deflate the inflation before it even started.

The prevailing winds, they determined, were simply far too strong for hot air balloons, tethered or not.

"All the balloon people are here," said Jeff Plant, back in the saddle again for year two of Frost Fest and now emceeing the ballooning show, "but we have winds that are 20 to 40 kilometers an hour. Their wind tolerance is about ten kilometers an hour. So we're two or three times more than that."

Okanagan Ballooning's Joy Klempner added more details.

"These balloons are basically five-storey sails," she explained. "And with these winds, they'd hit the ground on one side and then come back and hit the other.

"We would have to use all the crew members just to hold the lines to keep them stable. It would have been a very dangerous idea in this weather."

Fortunately, there was a backup plan. Though the balloons would remain in their trailers, their pilots and crews would fire off their burners into the dark night sky.

It made for a highly effective light show. Indeed, it served a secondary purpose as well – it helped keep the crowd of several hundred warm.

According to Klempner, hot air balloon burners release as much as 40 million British thermal units (BTUs) with each pull. Typical house furnaces are rated below 100,000. Little wonder then that with the spectacle and the warmth, much of the throng stuck around for some time even without the balloons.

"It's the risk you take with these tthings," said Plant. "Last night was perfect. Even earlier today was good. But tonight, no chance."

We asked if balloons would be on the menu for 2026.

"We're always looking for ways to keep Frost Fest fresh and we want to add new content every year," he said. "Maybe it’s balloons, maybe it’s something else."

Saturday morning the festival Fest was back at it early at the outdoor rink with the first of a bevy of sessions and games.

One of the first on the ice at 8:30 AM was Penticton Vees' mascot HarVee, who signaled a heavy Vees presence on the day and skated for an hour with anyone who wanted to join in. Several dozen kids eventually did, as their parents looked on.

The highlight was a 1:15 PM tilt involving the Upper Deck Vees and local First Responders.

Unfortunately, the big draw of the previous year, a series of appealing events surrounding that year's BCHL All-Star game at the South Okanagan Events Centre, including skills competitions and an alumni contest involving numerous celebrated ex-NHLers, didn’t repeat this year. The All-Star game shifted to Salmon Arm for 2025, leading to smaller crowds at the Frost Fest rink.

But right next door at Gyro Park and in the 100 block of Main, Frost Fest partner Hahaha Kidzfest were staging the second annual Kidzfest Family Fun Zone.

Activities for 2025 included crafts and games and a bunch of family-centric happenings like candle-making, gingerbread house-making and miniature snowman-making.

There was even an inflatable curling rink. And a giant puppet strolling about, alerting guests to the upcoming Ignite the Arts Festival.

Arguably the most popular attraction? Roch Fortin of Summerland-based Maple Roch Pure Canadian Maple Store making maple taffy on Main Street by pouring liquid syrup on a bed of ice and letting it harden into maplesicles.

Folks walking by were welcome to partake in both the process and the final product. The lineup for Fortin's maple taffy creations stretched down the block.

Kidzfest coordinator Jacki Kliever told us Family Fun Zone attendance was up for 2025.

"This year we've expanded to be out here on the street while we're still in the park," she said. "So now we have a lot more room – nearly double the space.

"And we've had more people than last year – maybe 25 percent more. We can tell that because of all the supplies we've gone through. This year we’ve dug into our reserves across the board. In 2024 we didn’t even touch them."

We asked Kliever if she could foresee a time when Frost Fest might pull in summer-sized crowds.

"We've had so many folks today who've commended us for continuing this new tradition we started last year," she said, "but it's all about getting the word out.

"Penticton has a strong tradition of long-standing festivals. People know what to expect and when to expect it. So bringing in something new, especially in the winter where there hasn't been much before, not everyone knows it's happening.

"Over time, they will."

Something no one could control was this year's scarcity of local snow. During the 2024 festival, the entire city was covered in a shallow layer of it. And that added to the ambience, especially in spots like the Family Fun Zone where all that green grass was wintry white.

The lack of snow in 2025 also meant crews had to travel a bit further to stockpile enough for critical spots like the Rail Jam hill and the kid's toboggan ramp. What wasn't available from local ice rinks had to be transported in from Apex Mountain.

And by sunset Saturday, all eyes were focused on that makeshift hill, a facility that looks quite stunning in the dark when it's illuminated by overhead lights and surrounded by a healthy crowd.

Thirty-two boarders from across the interior and the lower mainland competed for bragging rights over the course of a couple hours, and their tricks and stunts were nothing short of mesmerizing.

Ultimately, said an enthusiastic Rob Burnett of sponsor Freeride Boardshop, the 2025 Peach City Rail Jam was a "huge success."

"It’s as good as any rail jam you'll go to in the country," he said. "I got quite a bit of feedback from the snowboarders themselves, and they were all extremely pleased. They thought it was one of the best they’ve been to all year."

Burnett felt the enthusiasm extended to the crowd, which outwardly seemed larger than that of 2024.

"It felt like they were really enjoying themselves," he said. "It was so good to see all the kids and families down there. There were so many smiling faces in the crowd.

"And the night went without a hitch. We basically hit play and the riders took over and the emcees did a fantastic job."

That they did. The pairing of Steve Hare and James Hutchinson were, once again, ridiculously entertaining.

"You know, this whole Frost Fest is an incredible event for downtown," said Burnett. "We're pretty fortunate to have events like this in Penticton that are planned by the City."

But unlike 2024, the end of the Rail Jam didn’t spell the end of Frost Fest. And on Sunday morning the schedule began again with the inaugural Frosty Toes Polar Swim.

For the first time in recent memory, Pentictonites could partake in a winter polar bear swim without first traveling to another community.

Presented by KISU Swim Club, the event would officially begin at 10 AM on the shore of Okanagan Lake directly in front of the Lakeside Resort's Barking Parrot Bar.

And once more, just like two nights earlier, the wind crashed in hard from the north. But that wouldn’t stop three dozen brave/crazy people from taking the plunge and another three dozen from looking on.

One of those to courageously get aquatic was Penticton's Amanda Vikner, who smiled as she entered the water and smiled again as she exited. She credited her habit of "cold dipping" for keeping her so calm in such a frigid situation.

"It's a good time," she laughed mid-shiver on the beach. "One hundred percent I'd do it again. It's fun to do things not everyone is willing to do."

Swim spokesperson Dionne Tatlow of KISU, who'd taken the time to create a bingo card filled with various dry land and aquatic tasks for anyone wanting to participate, said she hoped the morning was the beginning of a tradition.

"Getting in the water at this temperature is a weird thing to articulate," she said, "but it’s a really lovely feeling.

"It's mind over matter. You're cold and you know you're cold, but you embrace that feeling. It gets the adrenaline going and you always have a good day afterward."

Heartened, we walked over to the water and stuck our finger in. Had Tatlow's words helped us conquer our very real fear of wintry water?

No, it hadn’t. It definitely hadn’t.

Meanwhile, just a few meters away on the Barking Parrot deck, members of the Penticton Fire Department cooked up pancake breakfasts for anyone making donations to their Charitable Society. There were scores of takers, including several swimmers.

Penticton mayor Julius Bloomfield had nothing but accolades for Frost Fest when we flagged him down over the weekend. Of course you'd expect a mayor to say that, but Bloomfield certainly seemed sincere.

"The feedback I've been getting," he said, "is really positive, and it's been genuine.

"Sure, the balloons didn’t fly Friday night and everybody was disappointed, but that's the weather. We're looking forward to it when it does happen. And everything else has gone so well."

According to Bloomfield, the City's first modern-day winter carnival has a bright future.

"It's been quiet downtown for decades at this time of year, so we're fighting that perception," he said. "So we'll take it a step at a time and gradually build awareness. And it’ll keep growing.

"We're not rolling up the sidewalks any more in Penticton. That's the message and this is evidence of that."