Snowfest Opening Ceremonies

This Friday night, Lake Tahoe will crown a new queen, as fireworks twinkle overhead and 100 torch-bearers ski down the mountain behind. The queen is the new Snowfest queen, and the fireworks and torch-bearers a part of the Snowfest Winter Carnival Opening Ceremonies. Snowfest, now in its 28th year, is a 10 day celebration of all that is wonderful about Lake Tahoe in the Winter.

More precisely, Snowfest celebrates the magnificence of Lake Tahoe in late February and early March, a time of year with great snow, warmer-than-Winter tempatures and more daylight. Bob Everson, way back in 1981, was the man that came up with the idea for Snowfest. A few months later, Mr. Everson died in a boating accident on Lake Tahoe. The very first Snowfest was held in his honor.

Now, 28 years later, scores of Lake Tahoe locals continue to work hard to assemble 10 days of extraordinary Winter events for all to enjoy. This year, like each year before, Snowfest begins with glorious opening ceremonies.

At 6:30pm on the sun deck at Squaw Valley (directions) visitors can share in the coronation of the SnowFest Queen, The Snowfest 2009 Snowfest Queen contestants are: Beverly, Hannah, Hillary, Lilly and Sierra.

Each of these young ladies worked diligently in the following areas, with the hope of earning the crown:

1. essay and interview: contestants are asked to write and discuss the impact that one of their many extra-curricular activites had on their lives.
2. funding-raising for a worthy local nonprofit. Contestants sell raffle tickets with half the proceeds going to their sponsoring nonprofit and half going back to SnowFest.

During the coronation and after (until about 7:30p), visitors can enjoy the laser light show, torchlight parade and a spectacular fireworks. I'm told the best view of these spectaclar shows is from the base Village, Olympic Plaza and Sun Deck.

Be sure to see the Science Expo, a pre-opening ceremonies Snowfest event. The Science EXPO will feature interactive science experiments for kid’s ages 6-12 and their families on the themes of “Snow, Water, Ice & Earth”. In addition, this year, many of the activities will pertain to climate change, global warming, and the impacts here at Lake Tahoe. Admission is FREE and includes and ice cream cone! The Science Expo will be held at UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center (directions), on the Sierra Nevada College Campus in Incline Village. The 2008 Science Expo was visited by some 900 children and family-members.

And finally, while many, many Lake Tahoe area residents work to make Snowfest the glorious event that it is, everyone seems to agree that Ruth Schnabel, SnowFest Director is the heart and soul of Snowfest. On behalf of all that enjoy Snowfest each year, I'd like to thank Ruth and everyone that makes Snowfest possible each year.

Thank you to Wendy LautnerArts & Entertainment Editor, Tahoe World Sierra Sun for the Snowfest Queen Contestant photos. Be sure to check out her Lake Tahoe family dining article.