WILLOW CREEK — The first-ever Willow Creek Winter Festival, held Feb. 18-19, brought an estimated 1,500 visitors to town for a weekend of ice fishing, snowshoe races, maple-taffy making, and a chili cook-off — exceeding organizers’ projections by nearly 50%.
The festival, organized by the town recreation department and the Willow Creek Tourism Council, was designed to fill the gap between snowmobile season and spring thaw. It generated an estimated $120,000 in direct spending at local businesses, according to preliminary survey data.
A notable 40% of attendees came from Canada — primarily New Brunswick and Quebec — taking advantage of favorable exchange rates and the reopening of the border after pandemic restrictions.
“We’ve always known the Canadian market was there,” said Julia Chen, who chaired the festival planning committee. “This was the first time we deliberately marketed to it, and it paid off.”
The festival featured an ice-fishing derby on Pleasant Lake with 47 registered teams, a snowshoe race through the Mattawamkeag River Trail, and a maple-taffy demonstration by Niall O’Flaherty that attracted a standing-room-only crowd.
Dean Moreau of The Dry Dock served 220 bowls of his smoked-fish chowder over the weekend. “February is usually dead,” Moreau said. “This felt like July.”
The Board of Selectmen voted 5-0 at its Feb. 22 meeting to make the festival an annual event and to allocate $8,000 for a 2024 edition with expanded programming, including an outdoor concert and a night-sky photography workshop.
Organizers are exploring a partnership with a New Brunswick tour operator to offer package deals for Canadian visitors next year.