Allegheny County might not have seen a lot of snow so far this winter, but that’s not stopping Boyce Park from planning to host its inaugural “Snowfest” this weekend.
“It is the first-ever Snowfest in Boyce Park,” Kevin Evanto, chief marketing officer for Allegheny County, said of the January 23rd through 25th event. “The idea that we came up with last year was to put together three days of winter fun for the whole family, and that includes both skiers and non-skiers.”
Throughout the weekend, there will be races for skiers and snowboarders, including the 30th Annual Adam Zebroski Memorial Ski & Snowboard races as well as the 2nd Annual Boyce Park Shootout.
“There’s a number of different age categories,” Evanto said. “And we do have separate skiing races and snowboarding races, and some of those take place on Saturday and some of them take place on Sunday.”
Evanto said they are offering special all-day lift tickets on Saturday and Sunday so skiers and snowboarders can stay on the slopes from 9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. instead of buying tickets for the usual two sessions.
For those who prefer to stay off the ski slopes, there will be snowtubing, face painting, a magician and music.
On Saturday, Boyce Park is also hosting a Cardboard Box “Snowtubing” Derby.
“We’re encouraging people to build sleds out of nothing but cardboard and duct tape,” Evanto said. “Bring them out to the snowtubing hill, race down the hill, and we’ll be giving prizes away in two different age categories.”
For safety reasons, ski patrol will approve all of the sleds before allowing them to slide down the hill.
To wrap up the day, Lightwave International will display the Winter Wonderland Laser Light Show.
“We actually have laser shows on Friday night and Saturday night,” Evanto said. “We’ll actually be bouncing lasers off of the Boyce Park Lodge and off of the ski slopes combined with music.”
