This Saturday (March 3) Cochranites can celebrate a family day outdoors at the 8th annual WinterFest.

Being hosted at a new locale this year, WinterFest will be taking place up at the Cochrane and District Ag Grounds, which the organizing committee is excited about.

Marina Chabbert, President of Cochrane Area Events Society (CAES), feels the AG grounds are the perfect venue to host the one-day festival offering some shelter if needed.

Although WinterFest is being held a little later than previous years, the CAES committee lucked out with plenty of snow to play around in. Temperatures are being forecasted at -6 C with flurries and Chabbert says that is perfect. "We hit it lucky this year. We try and go when we think it's going to be a little bit milder outside but still frozen enough to provide a winter atmosphere to the festival."

Many new fun family features are being added to the roster this year which Chabbert is excited to unveil. "We have a lot of new events that we are organizing for this year, so we're quite excited. We are hoping that it's going to be hugely popular with all the people from Cochrane."

Some of this year's new activities include Crokicurl, a life-size game of crokinole but played on ice and Axe throwing. Chabbert, adds axe throwing seems to be one of the latest rages at the moment and the Calgary based company will let you safely swing while trying to hit the bullseye.

A pancake breakfast will kick off the morning at 10:30 am with entertainment lasting all day up until 3:30 pm. 

If you haven't been to WinterFest before, Chabbert sums up the day perfectly. "It's celebrating the end of our winter, it's celebrating everything that winter offers and it encourages people to come out, network, talk to your neighbours and have a great time and good day."

With the sponsorship of the long-standing event down, Chabebert says admission needs to be charged to offset costs of booked entertainers. "We are just trying to break even. So, we are capping it off for families for $15 so if you have 4 or 5 in your family it won't cost you an arm and leg to come out and have a full day of activities. It is $5 a person and kids 10 and under are free."

Once you are through the gates you won't be expected to pay on top of gate admission.