New winter festival to combine fun and culture

April 15, 2025

_{There’ll be fun for all ages in February during the Chéticamp Winter Festival. These children are shown enjoying the snow at Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Photo: Daniel Aucoin}

The Chéticamp Winter Festival (which may go by another name by the time the celebrations roll around) will run from February 14 to 16, 2025. It’s spearheaded by the Conseil de développement économique de la Nouvelle- Écosse (CDÉNÉ) and a local organization called Allons-y Ensemble (Community Matters).

Carole Aucoin, community economic development officer with CDÉNÉ, says organizers hope it’ll attract visitors to the community, particularly those who have relocated from elsewhere to build their lives here.

“We don’t have an official name for it yet,” she says, noting that organizers initially talked about it as a seafood festival. But, with so many new immigrants to the area, they saw it as a chance to feature the culture and food of various other nations that are now represented locally.

“We’re going to open the festival with an opening ceremony at the new cultural centre located at Ecole NDA,” she says. “We’re going to have a food market too and a taste testing that will include all the different cultures here – not just the seafood dishes and the Acadian dishes, but to add the multicultural dishes.”

Recent years have seen a growing number of people from the Philippines, India and other Asian countries, as well as several European nations, relocating to live in the Chéticamp area, says Aucoin. She says the festival is a perfect opportunity to celebrate this new-found diversity.

“Our community is quite diversified now compared to years ago when it was mostly French and Acadian, and the occasional English speaker,” she adds. “Thank God we do have so many newcomers to the area, because a lot of the businesses couldn’t have survived. We’re very, very appreciative of all the newcomers to the area.”

Indeed, Chéticamp was recently designated one of 14 ‘Welcoming Francophone Communities’ across Canada, designated by the federal government as ideal places for French-speaking newcomers to settle and build their new lives in Canada.

The festival, which will mobilize a huge volunteer effort, will involve all the communities from the Margaree Harbour bridge to the gates of the national park. Along with celebrating the food and cultures of the area, it will provide a number of indoor and outdoor events that will offer something for everyone, young and old.

Among the outdoor events being discussed are sleigh rides, tobogganing, snowshoeing, skating parties and bonfires. If Mother Nature doesn’t cooperate, there will be quite a number of indoor activities as well, including live music, craft workshops and of course a Friday night bingo.

Aucoin says the event will involve dozens of local businesses, many of which are reopening for this one weekend. She says a schedule of events is still taking shape and those interested in attending should look for updates on local community radio, newspapers, social media and on Chéticamp’s newest website, infoCheticamp.ca.

“We’re looking for people to create memorable experiences, so they want to return to our community again,” she says.