Wet, warm weather challenging for Jack Frost festival preps

Wet, rainy weather the past several weeks is posing challenges for organizers of this weekend's Jack Frost Festival, but they say they'll be ready for thousands of children to descend on the site come Friday.

Monday's 3 C temperatures mean structures created from snow and ice over the past few weeks at the Charlottetown Event Grounds need tarpaulins to protect them from rain and sunshine.

We've had a lot worse. Tracey Singleton

"We're not experiencing anything that we're not used to," said Tracey Singleton, the festival's event producer. "It's pretty much on par with what we've experienced over the last few years."

Crews have had to adjust their schedules to synchronize with cooler weather for instance Monday, workers creating 25 ice slides took the morning off, but planned to work into the evening as the temperature cools.

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The festival has also had to hire extra labour this week to get everything done in time, Singleton said.

"We've had a lot worse," Singleton said, recalling double-digit temperatures in the week before the festival. "When I look at the temperatures for this week they're obviously not opportune, but tomorrow we have minus-11, so that's ideal. So we'll build ice slides all day tomorrow."

Extra crews

Once the ice slides are complete, Singleton said, crews will cover them with snow to protect them from thawing in warm temperatures. Extra crews will need to be called in Thursday and Friday to uncover the slides.

Temperatures for the weekend, predicted to be -5 to -7 C, will be ideal for sliding, Singleton noted.

There will also be an indoor play area at the Eastlink Centre, and the festival has added a new indoor game zone at Murphy Community Centre that will feature more than 20 video game consoles.

The festival runs Friday through Sunday.

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