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WINTERFEST!
Winterfest has become a seasonal tradition for Lake Geneva, drawing families, day-trippers, and winter enthusiasts who come to watch the sculptors at work and enjoy the town’s cold-weather offerings. The Lake Geneva Winterfest will take place from Wednesday, January 28, 2026, through Sunday, February 1, 2026, primarily at Riviera Plaza and Flat Iron Park in downtown Lake Geneva. The event is free to attend, which also includes the ice sculpture walk throughout downtown.
The festival’s main attraction is America’s Snow Sculpting Invitational, which features 15 professional teams from across the country transforming massive blocks of snow into detailed sculptures along the lakeshore. The sculpting competition during Winterfest runs from Wednesday through Saturday, with an awards ceremony on Saturday, January 31, at 3 pm in the Riviera Ballroom. The finished sculptures remain on display through Sunday, February 1 (weather permitting).
The Downtown Ice Sculpture Walk ice displays are placed throughout local shops and public spaces. This helps spread the crowd out, along with promoting the local businesses. Gather around bonfires at Riviera Beach, with concessions available for purchase. Enjoy various musical performances throughout the festival, including in the Riviera Ballroom Warming Center. Sample food and drinks from various vendors. Vote for your favorite snow sculpture from 10 am on Saturday, January 31, through 3 pm on Sunday, February 1. The Winterfest celebration was created by Spyro Condos, better known as Speedo; he spearheaded a movement of businessmen around the northern edge of Geneva Lake to begin a snow sculpting celebration of mid-winter.
The Anagnos family, then and currently running Popeyes Restaurant, chimed in, and the enthusiasm spread almost as much as the increase in attendance. The whole thing is free to the public. The only real problem is that the event is so popular that parking is at a premium. Possibly that will be less so because the city leaders, in their infinite quality of making people pay for whatever, increased the parking rate to four dollars an hour instead of it being for free like it always was. If you have money, you can come to this kind of thing. The celebration is wonderful; however, there is a downside. Each year, the snow carving (special formula snow made up at the Geneva Resort) is contained in larger casements. Teams come in to compete from all over the USA, and the public gets to judge them. There are classes of judging and miniatures of the work all over the place, interspersed with ice carvings from other non-affiliated artists as well.
Come to the downtown area and shop, walk around, and meet the people. Most locals come out for this grand, successful celebration, and this is a chance to mingle with them. Open your heart if not your checkbook, wallet, or purse. It’s not all about money, even when it seems that it might be. Eat breakfast at Speedos and maybe lunch at Popeyes, and then spread out to cover the rest of this really neat lake edge area.
