Memories of the Frosty Festival is a breezy read while giving an informative look at the carnival’s 40-plus year history. Sports and competitions, pageants, food, volunteers, and even the face of Frosty himself are all given treatment within its pages. Chad Feehan Local Journalism Initiative Reporter photo
New book charts the history of Mount Pearl’s annual winter festival
By Chad Feehan / Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Frosty Festival has been uniting the community of Mount Pearl with entertainment, food, sports and dance since 1983, offering residents a nearly two-week long soiree during winter's coldest, darkest months.
Now, the story of the Frosty Festival has been told from its earliest beginnings in Memories of the Frosty Festival, a new book compiled and published by Admiralty House Communications Museum.
The trip down memory lane takes readers from 1983 to 2023, shedding light on the events that comprise the festival, the people who make it happen, and what it means for the people of Mount Pearl.
Frosty Festival Chairperson Megan Winter, who has been volunteering with the festival in some way or another since 2003, said the volunteers who make it happen often forget they are in the process of making history, which the book does a great job of preserving.
“To be able to produce a book that really focuses on the story of the festival going back to ’83, it really captures the essence of what the festival is,” she said. “For a lot of people, the festival is nostalgic. It’s full of great memories and it’s a source of great pride for the people of Mount Pearl.”
Memories of the Frosty Festival sets the scene by detailing the origins of the city itself, when it was just a tract of land given to Commander James Pearl in 1829. Jump to the early 1980’s, when engineer and politician Neil Winsor raised the idea of holding a winter carnival in the town.
A committee was formed soon after, and as can be read in the book, the rest is history.
From February 4th to the 12th, 1983, the first “Frosty” featured 43 events, and was sponsored by all the major community groups in the town, including the Cadets, Lion’s Club, Knights of Columbus, United Church Men’s Club, Mount Pearl Soccer Association, Ladies Auxiliary, and the Legion.
Since then, Frosty Festival has changed in some ways and stayed the same in others, according to the needs and wants of the community.
The vehicle parade of the 80’s would not last long, but would eventually become a nighttime pedestrian parade of lights at the festival’s 35th iteration.
Trivia night would balloon from a modest 12 teams to 45, and the annual Kentucky Cup hockey game between Mount Pearl Senior High and O’Donel High has a colourful interest all its own, so colourful in fact, that organizers had to scrap the contest.
“You look at your events, you modify them, always evaluating what the community wants and what the people want,” Winter said.
The festival's titular mascot Frosty has been through numerous incarnations, beginning with a visage curiously similar to Bonhomme of the Quebec Winter Carnival, before giving way to various other costumes throughout the decades.
Admiralty House Museum Manager Megan Webb has been working on the book since starting her role with the museum in January of 2023, taking over from previous museum manager Sarah Ryan. Webb said the book started out as an oral history but evolved into its final form after finding success in collecting stories, photos, and memorabilia from the community.
“There was such a wealth of information and so much interesting history to be celebrated that it was decided to compile it into a book so it could be enjoyed by many people,” she said.
For Webb, the book is a way to give back, and preserve individual stories from the festival that might not otherwise be told.
“A lot of the community of Mount Pearl, from my experience, really seeks that nostalgia,” she said. “That’s one of the reasons why people have been enjoying the book because it really embodies that sense of nostalgia.”
Memories of the Frosty Festival can be found at the Admiralty House Communications Museum in Mount Pearl.
