Milder temperatures that have plagued Winterlude in recent years are forcing organizers to re-evaluate the outdoor winter focus of the February celebration and branch out to other activities.
Ottawa’s 34th Winterlude will include the city’s first winter jazz festival, bringing participants to performances inside at downtown venues such as the National Arts Centre and Mercury Lounge. Concerts run from Feb. 2 to 4.
Warmer winter temperatures are not new to the nation’s capital. According to David Phillips, the senior climatologist at Environment Canada, winter is slowly becoming a less dominant season in the city.
In the last three decades, Ottawa’s average February temperatures have increased by 1.3 C, while its snowfall has decreased by nine centimetres, when compared to three decades prior.
Phillips says milder winters are coupled with large variability in weather. He says these trends pose a serious threat to the tourism sector.
“Nature is the casino and she plays the odds and I think it’s hard to know what’s coming up,” Phillips says. “What you’re seeing more of is an assault on those things that make Winterlude.”
In defending against this assault, Winterlude organizers approached Montreal-based consulting firm Gagne Leclerc to examine the success of their events.
NCC spokesperson Denise LeBlanc says the consultant suggested drawing attention away from outside activities that rely heavily on cold, snowy weather.
In the past, Winterlude organizers have attempted to weatherproof venues, building tents around the international ice-carving competition and applying protective coatings to the ice slides.
This year, organizers have also diversified the events being held. Leblanc says the NCC has formed partnerships with more than 50 private and public organizations. Last year’s festivities included only 12 partnerships.
“In order for it to sort of continue to grow and evolve, we needed to change it up a little bit,” she says.
One of the new partnerships is with the Ottawa Jazz Festival, an organization in its 32nd year of summer performances.
Evan Clark, a spokesperson for the jazz festival, says the Winterlude partnership gave programming manager Petr Cancura an outlet to develop an event they hope will mirror the New York City Winter Jazz Festival.
“We want to bring that idea, vibe and feel to the City of Ottawa,” says Clark. “Of course, we don’t have the same infrastructure in terms of jazz clubs, but I think this is a big step in the right direction.”
The inclusion of a jazz festival and other additions to Winterlude has not come without concern from the community.
According to Robert Dekker, vice-president of the Centretown Citizens Community Association, some are worried that changes to the festival could hurt Winterlude’s identity.
“Their concern is they think Winterlude is still focused and should always be focused on the events on the outside,” says Dekker.
Quinsin Nachoff, a New York City-based saxophonist, clarinetist and composer, will be performing at the festival. He has played outside in the cold before and says jazz does not bode well under winter temperatures.
“It’s a little harder with acoustic instruments because they go all squirrelly with the pitch,” says Nachoff.
But Clark says a strictly winter-themed Canadian identity is close-minded.
“It’s a bit disappointing to think that our identity is so closely tied to how well the Canadian national hockey team does,” he says. He emphasizes that the jazz festival will feature Canadians in eight of its nine performances.
Dekker says the community is also worried marquee events could eventually be pushed to the background.
“I don’t object to the additional events,” says Dekker. “I think the concern is that the additional events they want to add will slowly, over the course of time, replace what happens at Confederation Park, at Jacques-Cartier Park.”
Clark says that the jazz festival will not come at the expense of outdoor activities, but will enhance them.
“Skate the Rideau Canal, enjoy the beauty of that; have your hot chocolate and your BeaverTail and then come check out something a little more cerebral,” says Clark. “It will give you an opportunity to thaw out.”