Madison Winter Festival
Chill out this weekend.
There's no polite way to say this, so cover your ears if you're sensitive: Midwinter thaws suck. What, you prefer cold rain and snowbanks the color of black grit to a few inches of fresh powder a couple times per week? Right.
When you decide to live in Wisconsin, you embrace temperature tantrums that may swing well over 100 degrees between winter and summer extremes. You also get four proper seasons in the span of 365 days. All four worth celebrating. None moreso than winter.
Someday when I'm mayor, I am going to create a Municipal Ministry of Winter and appoint Yuriy Gusev as its czar. He is the principal of the .
After getting started on Monday with the four-day Elver Park Winter Skill Games, the full-blown festival will run from Friday, February 13 through Sunday, February 15 on and near the Capitol Square. This year is shaping up as the most festive yet, despite the recent thaw.
A host of new activities are on tap: In addition to the usual cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, snowboarding, snow-tubing, ice- and snow-sculpting, winter expo and other events returning from previous years, the Madison Winter Festival is introducing the Frosty 5K run and walk, sponsored by Movin' Shoes; Cyclo Frost, a wintry variation of cyclocross bike racing, sponsored by Trek Bicycle Stores; and the all-city ice skating race sponsored by the