Lake Geneva Winterfest 2020

SPEAKER_04 0:08

Hey, it's Nick from Lake Geneva Country Meets with a special edition of the Dinner Plus Drinks podcast talking all about Lake Geneva Winterfest. I'm really excited about this episode because we talked to seven different people, six interviews about all the cool things happening in Lake Geneva for this event. We talked to everybody from the marketing director, Deanna, for visit Lake Geneva, to one of the snow sculptors. You can hear that interview at the end. It's totally worth sticking around and a lot of people in between.

SPEAKER_02 0:34

Yeah, hey guys, it's Bridget, and I am so excited about Winterfest because it allows everybody to get outside in the cold winter months when normally it's pretty easy to hibernate. So listen to all these great events coming up, and we hope you get outside and come enjoy some of them with us. Alright,

Deanna from VISIT Lake Geneva - Event Overview

SPEAKER_02 0:55

hi everybody. We're here with Deanna Goodwin, marketing director at Visit Lake Geneva. Thanks for being with us, Deanna. Thanks for having me. Yes, we're so excited, and you are lucky you get to have Nick and I interviewing you. I feel so special. Oh my god, because I'm honored.

SPEAKER_04 1:11

We're actually honored because it's the Monday before Winterfest. You guys have gotta be absolutely slammed down at the Visit Lake Geneva office. What's it like having excitement, energy, knowing that tens of thousands of people are coming to town? This weekend. Like your hands aren't shaking. Like if I was you, I'd have so much red bulb in me. I'd just be like, yeah, that's why I'd be here.

SPEAKER_10 1:35

It is, it's kind of surreal. Um for many of us in the office, it is new. I'm new to Visit Lake Geneva. Stephanie, our CEO, is new. Obviously, we've all been to Winterfest before, but this is our first foray in actually running it. Um so and it is a team effort. I'm gonna say that right off the bat. I mean, between Visit Lake Geneva, the city, all of our sponsors and partners, um, it's a huge team effort. So yeah, our team is just on full alert, it's all hands on deck. It's been that way for several months now, actually. But obviously, as we get a little bit closer to the event, um, you know, where we're gonna start building those snow blocks today. Um it's so fun to watch that. It is, it's unbelievable how they do it. I mean, it's just you would think that there is a more automated way to do it, but it is really old school where they put up a big old nine-foot form, fill it with snow, and there are people inside stomping the snow down. They're called the stompers. They are the stompers, they are professional stompers, and they're gonna be able to bring them in special. So, yeah, so that's what they'll be doing the next couple of days. So we're getting the grounds all ready now, um, you know, bringing in the snow. Grand Geneva is one of our major sponsors. They're donating that snow because you know we don't need Mother Nation. Right, and they're snowmakers. So they've been so kind um to donate the snow year after year, so they're doing that again with us. Um and so the snow blocks are being built. So when those carvers come in um and are ready to start, you know, hitting that snow um Wednesday morning, um we'll be ready for them.

SPEAKER_04 2:49

What's the uh thing that has surprised you most? This is you said this is your first year that you would have thought like never thought of this as a detail you guys had to manage. That someone from the outside is just like, oh wow, you had to do that? Because I mean like bringing the snow in, like, I don't think people thought of that, but there's gotta be something else that you guys are just like this is one of those little details we took care of to make this flawless for the guests.

SPEAKER_10 3:10

You know, um a lot of it is just uh I think the logistics of getting people from one place to the other. With there's 15 teams coming in, so we've got um there's a lot of room that we need. So we're split between Flatiron Park and the Riviera. So there's a little bit of gap there visually, so it's really getting people to understand that there's there's more this way or more that way. So we're doing uh more with more signage. Um we've got a great program with a map in it so that people kind of know where things are. So really just understanding how our visitors, what their experience was like last year and trying to make it comfortable for them, you know, bring in extra, you know, porta potties and and make sure they know where things are and they can have come be comfortable and have fun and just spend a lot of time here enjoying these cars.

SPEAKER_02 3:50

People never think about it. Bathrooms. Bathrooms is one of those things people don't think about it.

SPEAKER_10 3:53

Exactly. I think about that a lot. I've I've done a lot of events in my past, and that's one of the first things not only just getting the bathrooms, but putting them somewhere where they're not like right in the great pictures, you know. So all of our marketing pictures don't have big blue, you know, things in the background. So yeah, so strategically placing the porta potties is a little tidbit. I mean, maybe that's a good thing though.

SPEAKER_04 4:10

Like, hey, this is our beautiful picture, and you know what? There's nice. Yeah, I love the uh the really fancy porta potties that come in like the trailer. Like uh those are crazy. Snowcross at Grange Geneva, when they do that, has those where they like have showers and everything, and you're like, Yeah, I don't know if you need a special pass for those, but I've never been able to get in those.

SPEAKER_02 4:29

Yeah, I've not been in those. If you had those, put those in the marketing pictures in the budget for sure, right? So Nick and I have spent a lot of time the last couple days reminiscing about like past year's winter fest because this is a big one this year.

SPEAKER_10 4:40

2015.

SPEAKER_02 4:41

Yeah, so we've spent a lot of time talking about like our favorite memories, and and so I'm so excited like you guys get to see it from the other side this year, which I'm sure is a whole different animal. Um, but that kind of led us to want to talk about all these events that are going on besides just the snow sculpting, which we all know about, which is so cool. So um, there are a lot of new things this year, or things that have maybe come back to celebrate the 25th year. So um this ice sculpture walk downtown is really cool.

SPEAKER_10 5:07

Tell us a little bit about that. It is, it's a it's a new event, an um element of Winterfest. And these are um ice sculptures, not snow sculptures, but ice sculptures that are already done um by a great company called Art Below Zero. They're amazing. Max and Jeannie, they're amazing. I've worked with them in the past as well, and a lot of our businesses and partners in town have as well. I mean, they do everything from ice bars to ice castles to um just individual sculptures, even you know, tabletop sculptures for somebody's wedding. I mean, they do everything in between. So they're coming out and they're bringing um, we've got 29 or 30 businesses downtown and even a few outside of downtown who have sponsored these sculptures to be placed in front of their business. So it's like a public art project. Yeah, it's awesome. So basically, you can walk around downtown, wonderful photo ops um with these beautiful ice sculptures in front of the businesses downtown. Um, and so it's just like another uh another piece of winter art that our visitors can enjoy.

SPEAKER_02 5:58

Well, guys, keep an eye out because Lake Geneva Country Meets has one.

SPEAKER_04 6:02

We have the Lovebirds. So you're gonna want to keep an eye out for that, read the caption because we might might have something a little special.

SPEAKER_10 6:10

Oh, pay attention to the detail.

SPEAKER_04 6:11

Pay attention and to find art.

SPEAKER_10 6:14

And we will, this is um all of the schedule of all these events and activities are on the winterfestlg.com website. Um, but we will have a map and listing of all the businesses that will have ice sculpture, so you'll have a real easy way to find your way around and where those are.

SPEAKER_04 6:26

Awesome. So that's one of many things that's happening downtown. We're gonna take a little break with Deanna, let you hear from some of the other people in downtown Lake Geneva that are doing awesome events, and we're gonna circle back with her in a little bit to talk about the laser show, bonfires on the beach, the snow sculpting, but um the return of the human dog sled race. If you want to know what human dog sled racing is, you definitely want to keep listening because um I've done it. And I will give you my tips, and Deanna's gonna tell you how you can enter. So stay tuned, we'll be right back. So that was great hearing from Deanna about all the cool things that are going on. But outside of that, I want to hear what's your favorite winter fest, Bridget. Because uh, we've grown up here, we've been here for many of the 25.

SPEAKER_02 7:20

Yeah, we have, and I can't believe it's been 25 years.

SPEAKER_04 7:23

I know, it doesn't seem like it. Yeah, it's weird because it's like always been here, it's always been part of our lives.

SPEAKER_02 7:28

But we took it for granted, I guess. I guess we're old. Uh okay, yeah, we're gonna go there, but I if we're old, okay. So, yeah, then I'm gonna bring it back to my younger days when I was in college, maybe slightly after, I don't really remember when it was. Sometime around there. Sometime around those days. Um, you know, I used to live in Milwaukee before moving back here, and we always would tell our friends about this awesome event, uh and they would make uh plans every year to come down and join us for Winterfest. So every time I think about Winterfest, I have fond memories of when the lake actually froze over early enough to be able to walk across it. Um my sister Shannon moved back here before I did, and she had an apartment on the uh just past the library, kind of heading toward Blaines Bay, right? Really awesome spot, great place to start your festivities. Oh, a little pregame. A little pregame. Um, so but then we thought it'd be a good idea to go see the snow sculptures. So remember everyone, this is a little later in the night on a Saturday, okay?

SPEAKER_04 8:24

Was it maybe in the morning on a Sunday either?

SPEAKER_02 8:26

It could have been maybe in the morning. I don't remember the exact schedule of events, but I do remember um taking the shortcut. You know, the the walk from the library to the riv seemed really far at the time. So we took the shortcut across the lake. I actually think it probably took longer. Um, but we thought it was fun to walk across the lake. But then we thought it would be even more fun to climb on a snow sculpture. So okay, I apologize to all of these wonderful teams that I now have had the opportunity to meet, and I appreciate your beautiful works of art. Um, everybody, this was after the judging and after the awards were already announced. Um, late in the night Saturday. We only maybe slightly broke it a little, and I'm being serious, I don't think we really ruined property too much. Uh, but you know what? Fun memories, I don't do that now, everybody. I'm in a very different spot.

SPEAKER_04 9:16

All right, so let's go talk to someone that's gonna make some more fun memories of scary movies. Oh, yeah. And other winter-themed movies. Marie from the downtown theater. Let's go uh have a chat with her.

Marie from Geneva Theater - Film Fest

SPEAKER_02 9:35

Okay, hello everybody. I'm here with Marie from the Geneva Theater. Marie is Queen of all things event related. Hi Marie. Hi, how are you? Good. Thanks for being here. And we are talking about all of the awesome things going on during Winterfest. So tell me what the Geneva Theater is doing during Winterfest.

SPEAKER_09 9:53

The inaugural. Inaugural. Yes. Super special, amazing. You bet. Yep. Inaugural Winter Film Fest. And we have a great lineup, and most of it is free.

SPEAKER_02 10:04

Oh, hey, even better. But even if it's not, it's not expensive. Right? So, what are what are movies running?

SPEAKER_09 10:13

So, five bucks will get you into our 80s ski bum party. What? Tell me more about this. Yeah, so go go home to your parents' house, pull your 80s ski bum clothes out of the closet. Oh, I am coming. Get your 80s clothes out. So on Saturday night, we're showing Better Off Dead. It's a classic John Cusack 80s movie. It's funny, I watched it before I said, yeah, let's do this movie. It is hilarious. Um, five bucks, but if you come in a neon ski jacket, oh boy, you will get in free.

SPEAKER_02 10:49

Okay, guys, any of you that know me know two things about me. One, I love a good themed party. Two, I'm a goodwill shopping queen, so I will source all the things. You come to me, do not show up at this party, this movie, dressed in anything but awesome 80s gear.

SPEAKER_09 11:04

Yeah. You know, even an 80s t-shirt. We are going to, we will be pretty liberal with this. So come in, wear something 80s, see it for free. Dude, that is so great, Maria.

SPEAKER_02 11:16

I'm so excited about that one.

SPEAKER_09 11:17

So, um, and it's the perfect movie. Do you remember Booger from Air Quotes?

SPEAKER_02 11:24

You guys missed the air quotes. Uh Nerds, the movie Nerds.

SPEAKER_09 11:27

So he's in this movie.

SPEAKER_02 11:29

So it's a great flick.

SPEAKER_09 11:30

It is, and John Cusack is adorable in it. So this movie's at 10 o'clock. Okay. And after we watch it, everybody's gonna go over to the beer garden outside of Champs, and we're gonna have an 80s ski bum party as beautiful winter snow falls on us having a cold beer.

SPEAKER_02 11:48

I did peek at the weather, and it looks like we're gonna have snow, and we're gonna talk to Anthony from Champs about that party, also. So listen up here next. Um, okay, so besides the amazing 80s party, what else is going on?

SPEAKER_09 11:59

So um we're gonna kick off the Film Fest Wednesday night at 7:30 with Fargo. Oh my gosh, of course. Yeah, so you know, it starts in um a North Dakota blizzard and goes into Minnesota, so it is a great winter movie. Um, and of course, you know, that's a big Oscar winner. Francis McDermott, William Macy, Steve Bashimi. Yeah, the whole scene, you know, putting somebody through the wood chipper. Spoiler alert, if you've not seen Fargo. Yeah, it's a classic. Really, you need to see it on the big screen if you haven't seen it. And that's absolutely free.

SPEAKER_02 12:33

Oh, wow. So I haven't seen that on the big screen, so okay, free movie person in a wood chipper. I'm there.

SPEAKER_09 12:38

Fargo, fargo. Good winter movie. Um, Thursday night, 7:30, we have The Shining again. That is a classic winter movie. Um Red Rum. Yeah, I mean The Creepy Little Twin Marie.

SPEAKER_02 12:52

I might miss that one. I am a creepy little twin, Marie, and people refer, they relate to me in that movie. They tell me to see it. I just I've never seen it. I've been to the hotel though.

SPEAKER_09 13:01

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 13:02

I've been to it. It's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_09 13:03

Yeah, so uh Jack Nicholson plays a writer. Okay. And he and his family, his his wife and his son, they agree to kind of be the caretakers of this big, huge, beautiful hotel that actually shuts down for the winter because it gets snowed in. Oh, yeah, yeah, that makes sense. It is in I mean, I believe that. So the they get snowed in, he descends into madness. Oh, of course. And then these ghost hotel guests from the past start appearing. It's a Stanley Kubrick classic.

SPEAKER_02 13:32

I know. I should see it.

SPEAKER_09 13:34

Really? It's on everybody's film bucket list. It should be, if it isn't on yours, come see it. It's free. Oh my gosh, another free one? Yeah. 7 30. Okay, so that's Thursday night. Okay. Um, bring the family to Frozen 2. Um yeah. Show times will be announced. That's a $6 ticket, so really affordable. Got it, absolutely. Saturday night, 80s, Ski Bum, Better Off Dead, we talked about it. And then, of course, we gotta play Groundhog Day.

SPEAKER_02 14:03

Oh, yes, on Groundhog Day. Do you know that I got to see that movie being filmed?

unknown 14:08

Really?

SPEAKER_02 14:08

Down in Woodstock. So I didn't understand it. I think it was Woodstock. I was really little. Okay. But yeah, we got to see it being filmed, and like I didn't see how cool that was till now that I'm an adult. Um, obviously seeing what a big deal that was.

SPEAKER_09 14:20

Yeah, I finally watched it for the first time a couple years ago. You you know, you hear about it every year. You hear about it. Because who else ever made a movie about Groundhog Day? But it's hilarious. It is really good. So Bill Murray, uh, Andy McDowell. Yep. And so the thing is, he's a real jerk in this movie. He's very self-centered. Um and he, I don't know, he this Groundhog Day in Puckstitani, Pennsylvania, the same day gets repeated. Like God is punishing him or something. Yes. And so every morning he wakes up and it's the same day. And he sees the same people, he has the same interactions, and it's really a good movie. And when is that one? So that is on Groundhog Day. Oh, of course. Right. Um February 3rd. So some of you out there know Sunday, February 2nd, of course.

SPEAKER_02 15:17

Sunday. Yes, but the more important day is Groundhog Day. It's Groundhog Day, that's right. You're right. I was uh paying attention to the big game that day. Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 15:26

So before the big game, um come to Geneva Theater at noon, and uh, we've turned it into a benefit for fellow mortals. Oh, how great! So fellow mortals is gonna come um if you're if any of your listeners aren't familiar, that is a wildlife rehabilitation group here in Lake Geneva. They built an animal hospital. It's a total nonprofit, they really depend on donations. Yep. So they are gonna come and bring education animals.

SPEAKER_02 15:54

You know what? That's so cool. Um, for those of you that don't know, my husband runs a daycare, so he has worked with them. We actually they've they had a bird outside the daycare that was um not doing great. So he took my son, so he and my son went out there and they were able to help the bird. So if you don't know that, if you ever see a bird or an animal like that that's struggling, bring it out to fellow mortals and they will help the bird or animal. I'm not sure what their limitations are, so don't quote me, but I know they helped this bird for us, and it my son was super excited, and now we we donate to them where we know about them, and I think they're great. So this is awesome.

SPEAKER_09 16:25

Yeah, so we'll we'll have some live animals before the movie, and um they're gonna do groundhog facts, groundhog facts. Oh groundhogs.

SPEAKER_02 16:35

We all should learn a little more about groundhogs, I think. So this is awesome. I know there's been like so many people excited about a film festival of any sort in Lake Geneva. So this is a super awesome way to start it. I'm very excited.

SPEAKER_09 16:46

Yeah, there's lots to do outside, but if you need a little break and you love classic movies and you like the free price.

SPEAKER_02 16:55

Free or a lot again, six bucks, five bucks, but this is great. Also, movie theater popcorn, okay? Yeah, you can just go and have some popcorn because that's what I'm doing, guys. Right, right. So this is great. Um, what about what other events with Winterfest are you excited about?

SPEAKER_09 17:09

So this is a world class city. Yeah. And I'm excited about the ice sculptures. Awesome, yeah. They are huge. They're this competition is known around the world. It they bring in um these artists, they are artists, and I can't wait to see what they come up with.

SPEAKER_02 17:27

I know they're so cool every year. So obviously that's the thing that gets most talk up talked about, but it is outstanding that Lake Geneva hosts these national snow sculptors. So awesome. Um, the process of them setting up for these guys to start, um, guys, ladies and men to start sculpting. The snow is really cool. So if you're up here earlier in the week, check out the whole process of packing the snow and the the it's fun to check up on the progress every day, I think.

SPEAKER_09 17:51

Yeah, and you know, the weather forecast I think is gonna be a little more cooperative. Last year, what did they last? 48 hours.

SPEAKER_02 17:58

Oh my gosh, yeah. It seems like it just like we get a thaw for some reason in the first weekend of February. It's either negative 20 or 58 degrees. So it looks like it's gonna be in the 30s. We know it'll change 27 times before um, you know, the weekend, but that's okay. Um, okay, Winterfest is great, but Lake Geneva is awesome all winter long. What do you love about winter in Lake Geneva?

SPEAKER_09 18:21

The lake is beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 18:22

Yeah, it is. Like, let's just stop on that for a minute. We have awesome parks right along the lake. Just go down and like bundle up everybody and take a little walk. It's so pretty.

SPEAKER_09 18:32

Yeah, so there's a lot of activity in Lake Geneva in the summer and love it. Right, great. Some people hate it, but there's a lot of activity on the lake. But in winter, it's so serene. Yeah, it is postcard, it's just beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 18:48

Beautiful. It's really peaceful. Yeah, you're right. In the middle of the day, you can go down, and obviously, when it's frozen, there's ice fishermen, but right now it's it's not frozen and it is beautiful. Good answer. I like that. Yeah. Okay, here's the real tricky question, Marie. If Winterfest was a movie, what would it be? I think it would be Groundhog Day. I love this answer. Okay, the obvious answer is frozen. Okay, I was not going to allow that, even if you answered it. Yeah. I was gonna make you come up with a new one. Groundhog Day is, I think, the best answer now that we've talked about that movie.

SPEAKER_09 19:23

Yeah, be because every year you go and you see these great still sculptures, and you see these great shops, you see these great restaurants, you see this beautiful lake. So, yeah, you see these beautiful scenes repeated every year. It's um, it just isn't like annoying scenarios. Yeah, it's check that part out. Yep. It's just uh beautiful scenarios, and really it it helps me um get over cabin fever.

SPEAKER_02 19:52

Yeah, it's nice. Um, I'm a big advocate of get out and do stuff in all four seasons, right? So I like any excuse for someone to get out. So this is really helpful in that regard. So awesome. Yeah. Marie, if you guys haven't checked out Geneva Theater, go check it out. It is our hometown theater downtown. You can walk to dinner before or after, you can get snacks and food at the theater. Um, say hi to Marie, she's awesome. She's putting together a lot of really great events at the theater, so keep an eye out on their Facebook page and website for more information on any of their events and come see a movie.

SPEAKER_09 20:23

Yeah. Okay? I've got an 80s ski jacket. It's mostly black with a lot of neon geometric patterning going up on the padded shoulders.

SPEAKER_02 20:34

Marie might rival me in thrifting. So maybe if you just want to come check out who's better at thrifting, check out Marie and I at the 80s night. Okay. I gotta go because I gotta go to Goodwill, okay? Thanks, Marie. Thanks for being here. Yeah, thanks, Bridget. All right, that was so fun to hear from Marie. I love her, and the things they're doing at the Geneva Theater sound so fun. Well, hello, she is my kind of lady.

SPEAKER_04 21:06

She's pretty awesome.

SPEAKER_02 21:07

So she's so fun. Um, speaking of fun, Nick, I need to hear about your favorite Winterfest memory.

SPEAKER_04 21:13

So many. Um, this one might pain some people, and uh my apologies to the people whose lives this tragically affected. But when the cars fell through the ice.

SPEAKER_02 21:24

I come on, you had to imagine it.

SPEAKER_04 21:26

So funny. I was I was down there for some official duties, some picture taking, things like that, and there were a couple pictures I had to take or be a part of, and they were like an hour apart. And um one of the behind-the-scenes things you don't know is that there's official photos of sponsors and teams, and there's so many of them, and there's a judging, so it's like two thirteen and seventeen seconds. Very particular. And then it's like two twenty it's it's right on the schedule, so you don't want to miss this. So I didn't want to like drive back out to like Shiva Country meets or anything, so I stayed downtown and um it was a beautiful day. 45 degrees. A little too warm. Maybe a little too warm. And uh decided we'd uh check out. I think I was with my friend Seth, and we decided we'd check out the uh ice bar. Sure. And uh grab a drink, as as you do. As you do when you're killing time. And so we were walking from the park where all the sculptures were in front of the Riviera towards towards the ice bar. And just kind of saying, a lot of cars out there on the ice. Oh, it's kind of warm. And you can kind of see the water and the cars going over. We're like, oh, this is good. We got our drink, just kind of stood there watching, and it was so funny because it was like slowly, slowly, slowly, and boom! Cars started going through and people started panicking, and everybody just like started running to the cars trying to drive off the ice.

SPEAKER_02 22:46

But like, you're gonna drive. I I can't believe you saw it, first of all. It was amazing. I didn't unfortunately get to see Winterfest that year, so I only heard about all of this in the news.

SPEAKER_04 22:54

I I felt bad. I felt like we should have helped. But also their insurance paid for it, so it's fine. And it was like we were just like watching the Titanic think or something. Like we're just sitting there and having our drink, like, it's going down. It's a lot of cars. Fortunately, no one was hurt. It's just property. The lake was fine. No media is bad media. All good. You know, we got the international news, but that was my favorite.

SPEAKER_02 23:19

Yeah, that's a great memory.

SPEAKER_04 23:21

So let's go talk to Anthony. He is the one of the managers down at Champs, and uh hear about one of the new fun memories, a dueling whiskey night. Or maybe you won't remember it after the night. Don't climb on any snow sculptures.

Anthony from Champs - Bourbon Dinner

SPEAKER_04 23:42

Anthony from Champs in Lake Geneva. Thanks so much for joining me today. How are you doing, man? Good Nick, how are you, bud? I am great. So you do a lot of things at Champ, uh, but I think probably the coolest thing you're gonna do is put together some of the bourbon dinners that y'all do. And I know a lot of people have probably been to a wine dinner, a lot of people have probably been to a beer dinner, but not a lot of people have been to a bourbon dinner, and you're doing a Julian bourbon whiskey night at Champ for Winterfest, and it's not just like a normal dinner.

SPEAKER_03 24:15

It's pretty cool. You got a new twist. So can you tell us what Julian Bourbon Bourbon Whiskey Night is and uh give us an overview of the event?

SPEAKER_00 24:24

Yeah, so it's uh Thursday, uh January 30th, two different distilleries. I mean in one Trevor Twin distillery and the other breaker distillery. The distillers are actually gonna be there to talk about their bourbon. There's gonna be bourbon whiskey. There's gonna be three bourbon whiskeys from each distiller. So we're gonna do a six course meal with six different bourbon and six specialty cocktails, one specialty cocktail paired with each bourbon. And then so we'll do three rounds, two bourbons each round, two courses each round, and then the crowds get to choose the crowd gets to choose who the winner is, and then we have a pretty awesome um trophy for them. It's an engraved bourbon barrel lid.

SPEAKER_03 25:09

That's um that sounds really cool. Who the uh who are the two distilleries that you have coming?

SPEAKER_00 25:14

Uh Traverse City Distillery out of Traverse City, Michigan, and then Breaker Distillery. They're in the Ohio region, but they're actually owned by a company out of California. But they will all be here to the distiller themselves will be here to introduce their product. And then we actually have a special distillery, which I'm gonna keep a secret, but secret out of the bag. It's uh lacrosse distillery. Out of lacrosse Wisconsin, about a year and a half old now. They have this awesome product called Rotten Rye. It's uh it's a high-ry whiskey base, and it incorporates uh maple syrup and orange rye and stuff like that in it. It's pretty cool. So I'm gonna make a specialty cocktail out of that to start the evening off. It'll be fun.

SPEAKER_04 26:01

Uh you give people the opportunity to taste the whiskey, however you want to call it.

SPEAKER_03 26:07

But then also you got those cocktails because you can try something like a whiskey and you might like it, but most people aren't just doing shots of you know nice calling whiskey at home. A lot of people want to do the cocktails. I think it's really cool that you're doing the cocktail with it, because people can buy bottles to take home with their favorites, right?

SPEAKER_00 26:28

Yeah, they can take bottles home. They're gonna be able to try everything. Um obviously in a neat fashion, it's a half like about a quarter and a half ounce of each one um to take. And then you get to fill the cocktail with that. Uh tickets are fifty bucks you can get them at the door. I think that's a really often feel. And then if you miss the if you miss the bourbon whiskey night, the fillers will be there on Saturday from twelve to four in the beer garden, because our beer garden will be open for Winterfest. Um for Winterfest. I gotta do everything outdoors, right? Including a beer including a craft distillery case thing, so there'll actually be a couple others as well, besides the ones that we have coming out for the bourbon dinner.

SPEAKER_03 27:14

So in addition to the bourbon, you guys you know, everybody knows champions a great place to grab a beer, watch the game. You guys have great food too. And what on the menu? Is it all paired with each with each course, or is it kind of like a buffet something for you?

SPEAKER_00 27:29

It's a bu it's a buffet style meal. Um there's six courses that go with it. So we're doing three rounds this time. So instead of six different rounds as we normally would do, we do we would do each different whiskey, wine, bourbon, or whatever beer in our other dinners and we do so we just use one beer with one paired course and go through that. And then we'll do the two courses that go along with those as well. So there'll be three rounds, but there'll be three rounds of six o'clock, seven o'clock, eight o'clock, nine at nine. And we'll we're gonna start off with the charcuterie board and followed by um rosemary rosemary garlic and few along with a smoked onion and garlic and potatoes, and then the third round would be the cream barbecue pork right right, which is then hit in the left one until we brought it back. We're gonna cream barbecue pork this time. And then uh along with that we'll go kind of play on um black and bagel. It'll be a large perfini with a jalapeno green key, along with a smoke black, smoked and lightly black and cannon with papers and a large graffini, and then the word would be from our own countries.

SPEAKER_03 29:06

Oh nice, yeah. So that should be pretty freaking out with gonna be fantastic. Well, I love uh I mean this sounds like a great time because it's just like a boring sound like it should be a good time. Bring your friends, you can go for your favorite, have a little bit of debate there. So I'm I'm assuming you you'll uh you're foring, right?

SPEAKER_00 29:37

Yeah, the original 18 for four hours and it would be very interesting and fun.

SPEAKER_03 29:44

Do you have a favorite or do you think there's a clear how do you think how do you think there's gonna take anything and anything?

SPEAKER_00 29:54

It's gonna be close. I mean, some of these are extremely smooth and good, and I guess that's why I love the craft distillery aspect of it. It's not it's not your name brand. You know, there are items that you might have seen on a shelf in a clicker store or something, but you've really never decided to purchase them. So we did a lot of research and and took a lot of time in choosing if you saw the amount of bourbons that came across that we laid out, about twenty of them during the original tasting, so we narrowed it down to two distilleries, six bourbons. It was fun.

SPEAKER_03 30:28

That's awesome. Well, it should be a great time. Tickets are available at the door. You can go on Facebook, buy them online, and click. So 50 bucks is a steal. Um, hope people got by. Saturday you guys got the sampling too, so plenty of opportunities to hang out with champs during Winterfest. Thanks for uh your time, Anthony. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 30:46

My pleasure, Nick. You have a wonderful day.

SPEAKER_04 30:54

Thanks again to Anthony for taking the time out. Like I said, I think it's gonna be a pretty unique opportunity to try whiskies in a way you wouldn't otherwise do it. Uh there is Uber in Lake Geneva. There is. So be responsible.

SPEAKER_02 31:06

And they do a great job with all their dinners, so that's such a cool new addition. Now, next we're gonna talk to Sean and Kevin with the downtown Coco Crawl, which you guys, this event is near and dear to my heart and so yummy if you haven't experienced it.

SPEAKER_04 31:20

And very family friendly compared to the dueling whiskey dinner.

SPEAKER_02 31:23

It sure is, and it is free.

Kevin & Sean - Downtown Cocoa Crawl

SPEAKER_02 31:31

Okay, hi guys. I am standing here with Kevin and Sean, and they are representing the bid. And what event, guys, what are we talking about today?

SPEAKER_06 31:40

Coco Crawl 2020.

SPEAKER_02 31:42

Coco Crawl. I happen to know a lot about this event, but I don't know what's happening this year. Give me a little overview of the event for those of you that don't know.

SPEAKER_05 31:50

Well, we're first thing we want to do is make sure Sean Payne doesn't win again. We won one. The inaugural.

SPEAKER_02 31:57

That was yep, that was us over Clearwater Output. So we're already in a battle.

SPEAKER_05 32:01

Well, we think it might have been rigged, although we have no proof of that, so I won't say any more about that.

SPEAKER_02 32:07

So you'll have to test it out this year and see which one's actually the winner.

SPEAKER_06 32:11

Just because we got 1,500 votes and there was only 400 people participated in our first one. Well, I heard it was 15,000 votes, but nice try, Sean.

SPEAKER_02 32:18

Well, guys, how can someone come down and pick the real winner this year? What day is it? What's going on?

SPEAKER_05 32:23

It's on Friday, January 31st. Great. It is from 4 to still 6 30. Yep, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 32:32

And gives people plenty of time to try all the chocolate.

SPEAKER_05 32:35

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 32:36

And you pick up your pest starting at Where are we starting this year? We're starting at Franks and we're starting at the bottle shop. Oh, you guys. So you can have a glass of wine before all the chocolate. Sure. Or a hot wine chocolate. Oh, okay. So I happen to know there's a lot of chocolate at this event. So again, for anyone that's new, it's not just hot chocolate. What else are we trying to do?

SPEAKER_05 33:05

What are you doing this year, Sean? Are you telling us? No, not yet.

SPEAKER_06 33:08

It's top secrets.

SPEAKER_02 33:10

Oh, whatever. I happen to remember some blue concoction one year at Clearwater Outdoor.

SPEAKER_06 33:15

Yes, that one didn't do so well for it. That's weird. With the uh sprinkles and the whipped cream and everything else.

SPEAKER_02 33:20

Okay, all right.

SPEAKER_05 33:21

So I will say we are we usually do Celtic cocoa. So this year we're gonna mix it up and do Irish brownies. I won't say what's in them.

SPEAKER_02 33:29

So you have to come down and try it.

SPEAKER_05 33:30

You have to come down and try. Yes. Make sure you come here before Sean's and I'll give you a ballot. Will already be filled out.

SPEAKER_02 33:38

It will already will already say Flemings.

SPEAKER_05 33:40

We'll already say Flemings, yes. World's best Irish brownies.

SPEAKER_02 33:44

Oh, excellent. Okay, all right.

SPEAKER_06 33:45

It's been like one year we did crushed up uh Annie's candies in the cocoa. Nice. So a lot of people do different things. Uh Harley store, what do they do? Um chocolate covered strawberries? Strawberries, dips.

SPEAKER_07 33:56

What?

SPEAKER_02 33:56

And really people have done like uh a chocolate crispy like Yeah, I know um Lily Pets does a unicorn cocoa in the past.

SPEAKER_06 34:05

Yes, theirs is very good.

SPEAKER_02 34:06

Yeah, and they do a sweet display. Um there's a uh one of the more interesting ones I thought, which was like great for the clue room, um, because it gets people back. They don't have a front street presence, so you get back there, they give away um hot hot cocoa packets with a sucker and then a coupon to come back to the store. Oh another one, that's bunny books, same thing. A little coupon to come back on uh it was on a little mini chocolate bar. So you never know what you're gonna find.

SPEAKER_06 34:30

Yeah, really all you have to do is have cocoa in it or chocolate, so it could be even somebody had uh chili one year.

SPEAKER_05 34:37

They used a Mexican cayenne cocoa and they did a chili, and it was really great. And it just just to get people downtown to some people haven't been in some businesses or some new businesses, and it's just a great event for all ages.

SPEAKER_02 34:51

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 34:52

We're trying to get people to do more samples than the first year. Everybody was pouring like full copper. And everyone's like, after like six or eight, you're like, dude, I'm done.

SPEAKER_02 35:02

That's a lot of hot chocolate.

SPEAKER_06 35:03

They just want to come and get their stamp. Yeah. Get out.

SPEAKER_02 35:05

Yeah, that's fair. It's I think it's cool because you just touched on this, it gets people in stores that maybe they've never been in before, right?

SPEAKER_06 35:11

Well, for sure. I mean, like I said, when we started out that first year it was like 250 people, I think.

unknown 35:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 35:16

And then now it's grown. Like last year, we I counted the cups and we gave away like 480 samples.

SPEAKER_02 35:22

That's awesome. And you know everyone's not getting a cup everywhere. So there's well more than 480 people.

SPEAKER_06 35:28

It's just a huge free, which is really important, free family event. Yep. And that's you're right. People will come in with their kids and stuff, and maybe just one or two will try it, or the parents won't. Yeah. But these guys, of course, I'm a little deceptive because I put ours at the very back of the store, so you have to walk through our holes.

SPEAKER_02 35:44

Hey, that is smart, not deceptive.

SPEAKER_06 35:46

And then come back, but you're right. Hopefully they come in and they'll see something like, you know, I'll come back later and get something. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 35:52

And and it's a and it's a great kickoff for the whole weekend uh with for our winter fest. Coco Crawl starts it all off, and then there's all sorts of other activities, but it's nice that Coco Crawl really is the kickoff.

SPEAKER_02 36:04

Gets everyone excited and and all sugared up.

SPEAKER_05 36:06

All sugared up.

SPEAKER_02 36:08

Okay, how did this event start?

SPEAKER_05 36:10

So there it came to before the board, the business improvement district board of directors or streets of Lake Geneva. An idea was brought before us for a Coco Crawl that uh another community had done, and we sort of threw it around and we got the thing going. Uh, this is our third year. No, this is fourth or fifth.

SPEAKER_09 36:33

Fourth or fifth year. Fourth or fifth year.

SPEAKER_05 36:34

So, you know and Bridget really took it and ran with it and really built it up to now we have four or five, six hundred people showing up.

SPEAKER_02 36:42

So it's no secret to you guys that in my previous life, if you know me, I used to plan the Coco Crawl. So for those of you that don't know me, I know. Hi guys, I'm Bridget. Used to know this event intimately. And when I was working with Streets of Lake Geneva, we had other communities. Um, I know I had someone on the West Coast, I had someone just down in Long Grove. They w they heard about the event, saw it, thought it was really cool, and now they've started their own. So, like, spread the love. Coco crawls all over the place.

SPEAKER_06 37:07

Yeah, and when um like Kevin said, when we started this five years ago, whatever it was, we were trying to get some other activities for the locals to do.

SPEAKER_02 37:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 37:16

So that's why we don't do it on Saturday or Sunday. We're trying to get the locals involved.

SPEAKER_02 37:20

Yeah, that's smart. It's you know, I I got some really great feedback. I think it was my first year, that um was it's so nice to see locals bumping into like neighbors bumping into neighbors, doing an alcohol-free event at night, the streets are lit up, so it's really cool to see. Even if you don't like chocolate, or if you're like me, you come with your three-year-old and we make it to like two stores. Just come hang out. Like I could sit on a bench and run into people I know all night. It's lots of fun.

SPEAKER_06 37:45

Yeah, that and that's just it. You see, I mean, there's a lot of families there. We'll have like three or four families that go together as a whole group.

SPEAKER_02 37:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 37:51

You'll meet at someone's house and make it an event.

SPEAKER_02 37:53

It's fun. It's Friday night. Um so okay, besides Coco Crawl, which kicks off all the fun, right? I mean, there's tons of other fun things going on this year. What are you guys most excited for?

SPEAKER_05 38:03

So the movie this year is reminding me what the movie is, Sean.

SPEAKER_02 38:08

Well, there's a whole series.

SPEAKER_06 38:09

Because like shining is in there. Yes, so Frozen 2. Some are free. I know Frozen 2 you're gonna have to pay for.

SPEAKER_02 38:15

Yep, but only a couple bucks. Yeah. So I actually just talked to Marie from the theater. You guys will be hearing from her in this show in just a little bit. Um yeah, she's got a whole bunch of a whole series, I think, starting Wednesday, every day they have a movie. Um so that's new.

SPEAKER_05 38:27

And it doesn't matter what the weather is, it doesn't matter if it's snowing, if it's zero or thirty above zero, it's it's gonna it's gonna happen and the streets will be filled with people. So we just encourage people to come early uh before everybody gets too crowded.

SPEAKER_06 38:44

Yeah. Before people when you just start when you did start the um when we're talking about the local events. Yep. What they tried to do a couple years ago is have it for two weeks, and we just found it wasn't working as well. So one of the ones I'm excited about, because Clearwater's helping on Thursday night and Friday night keeping the fires going, is the fire and s'mores on the beach.

SPEAKER_02 39:04

Yeah, that's back this year. It's been a couple years, right? Um yeah, that's something good to do right after Coco Crawl, right? It's going on, I think, till nine.

SPEAKER_06 39:11

Yep, and that night um it kisses from Keegan and friends are the uh people who are helping with the s'mores and the fires and things like that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:20

Yeah, cool.

SPEAKER_06 39:20

It's a great organization.

SPEAKER_02 39:21

You guys, so we want to see all the pictures. So uh take pictures of your crazy cocoa concoctions. And I want to see them. You can't see the pictures on a podcast. Excuse me, the podcast then goes to a blog, and you can write us hello. Tell me more. Yes, go check out the blog. You can always fill out a contact form there. We love hearing from you guys. Please send us pictures of your favorite cocoa, or maybe you get a bonus if you take a picture with Kevin or Sean during Coco Crawl.

SPEAKER_05 39:50

Okay, remember that. Kevin overstore. Kevin at Fleming.

SPEAKER_02 39:56

Oh, I hear a competition within a competition here starting. That's right.

SPEAKER_05 39:59

Wow. We just want to make sure. Remember, vote for me. Sean is going to be mediocre right from the start, and just letting you know that right now.

SPEAKER_02 40:08

Okay, guys, last question. We love Lake Geneva year-round. So, what makes Lake Geneva so cool specifically in the winter? Yeah, tough, right? I'm tricking all my people with this question.

SPEAKER_06 40:21

Well, I mean, for me, we like to do some different things, but like to if you go skiing or go cross-country skiing, um Clearwater Outdoor happens to rent cross-country skis and snowshoes. Well, how convenient. We can go out to the state park or go up to Lap and Peak or uh the kettle. Yeah. So there's a lot of stuff to do.

SPEAKER_05 40:40

There's uh plenty of activities, not just downtown. There's a movie theater, we have there's coffee shops. Can't bears are still open all winter long.

SPEAKER_02 40:47

Yeah, you can you can zip line all winter long.

SPEAKER_05 40:50

The bars and the restaurants all have specials and all the shops. Every every shop is open year-round. So it's just it's just all sorts of stuff going on. A good vibe in the winter.

SPEAKER_02 40:59

Yeah. All right, guys. Well, I'm gonna come try both of your chocolate treats. I'll bring my three-year-old, and he can't lie. So he'll tell you which one's better. Stay tuned, check out the blog for the final result.

SPEAKER_06 41:11

Kevin quit me.

unknown 41:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:12

Okay, guys, calm down. Thanks, guys.

SPEAKER_06 41:15

Stay fruit.

SPEAKER_02 41:22

All right, thanks, John and Kevin. It was so great to hear about Coco Crawl, and I cannot wait to go down and try all of the delicious chocolate treats. And then after Cocoa Crawl, I am staying down for more fun events that Deanna's gonna tell us about next.

Deanna from VISIT Lake Geneva - Human Dog Sled Race

SPEAKER_04 41:41

Hey guys, it's Nick. We're back with Deanna and Bridget. But once you've got done cocoa crawling, you're gonna want to warm up because it's gonna be the perfect amount of cold, not too cold. Cold, so you know you're in winter. But you're gonna want to warm up uh because you can't eat that much cocoa. A lot of people do treats. So Deanna, bonfires on the beach is returning this year, and what can you tell us about that?

SPEAKER_10 42:05

Yes, we're so happy about that. That's such a quintessential winter, you know, being on the lake kind of experience. So um we have the beach back, and so we'll have eight um nice little fire pits running along the beaches or the beach line, and um we'll have s'mores and cocoa. Smoor s'mores. It's a daddy snow.

SPEAKER_07 42:24

It's a daddy, so yeah.

SPEAKER_10 42:26

And um again, we're fortunate we've got wonderful partners um helping us with that. So we've got Oak Fire and um the um uh all kinds of other businesses helping us. It's a private charity for um Kisses for Keegan. So we'll be raising some money for charity with some sales and and um of the s'mores.

SPEAKER_02 42:41

Um so um, so you can buy a little s'mores kit or what? How does that work? Yes. Oh, cool. So um so that's Elliot's gonna love it.

SPEAKER_10 42:48

So that's the bonfires on the beach are gonna be Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings from five to nine. So there'll be some music piped in. Um, we'll have the s'mores and hotco and some other treats. Um we're also gonna have fire spinners. Whoa, what a talk about that. Fire spinners, it's a it's a group called Fox Valley Fire Arts, and they're amazing fire artists where they they, you know, juggling fire, blowing fire, breathing fire rather. Um spinning, dancing with fire. It's just an amazing show. You've gotta see it. It sounds dangerous. You've got to see it. It sounds dangerous. It's cheap feeder's gonna be on the house. Don't try this at home. It's just don't try this at home kind of thing. Leave it to the professionals. Um but they will be there um Friday night. They're doing um two shows on Friday night, 7 and 9 p.m. Oh. And then um on Saturday night.

SPEAKER_02 43:34

So this is perfect. You guys, once you've tasted all your cocoa, pop down to the beach because the cocoa crawl ends, I think, at 6 30. And then you I mean that's my plan.

SPEAKER_10 43:41

Yep. Just keep the cocoa coming. Yep, keep it coming. All the chocolate. Um and then the fire spinners will be there back on Saturday night, 5 and 7 30. So they've got four performances. Yeah. So they got two performances Friday and Saturday on the beach where we're doing the um the bonfires and s'mores. And um so there's a lot, a lot of light up in the sky, one might say.

SPEAKER_02 44:00

Lasers.

SPEAKER_04 44:01

Tell us about the laser should be. This is like the the young boy in me. I'm like lasers? Lasers? Lasers? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:06

I'm very interested in the long discussion about the laser light show. So you need to clear up some uh questions here. So tell us where this is happening exactly.

SPEAKER_10 44:15

It is happening at the Riviera. Okay. Right out in front. Um so it's kind of our finale after the um uh at the end of the sculpting. The sculpting will be all done. The um award ceremony is happening at three o'clock inside the Riviera, and after dusk, about six o'clock in front of the Riviera, there will be a laser light show, courtesy of laser fusion. Alright. And so all I can tell you is that it's a laser light show. You gotta have to see it. It's hard to describe.

SPEAKER_04 44:39

I mean, is there like music to this? Like crazy, like the what's a Christmas? Mannheim steamroller.

SPEAKER_10 44:45

I think, yeah. I haven't heard it. I haven't heard the soundtrack to it yet, but it is it is to music.

SPEAKER_02 44:52

Yes, are the lights where are the lasers pointing? In the sky, on the building, on the snow sculptures?

SPEAKER_10 44:56

It'll be sort of above everyone's heads. Okay. Um, and then again, playing off the sculptures that are gonna be right there, right in front of the riviera surrounding the fountain. Cool. Oh, that's gonna be fun. So that's new for everyone, right? Yes, that's new, six o'clock on Saturday. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 45:08

That's awesome. Now, as we promised, the human dog sled race. Deanna, could you prov set the scene of the human dog sled races, please? What does it look like?

SPEAKER_10 45:19

Well, there's no dogs involved. We'll just clear that up right away. Wow. No puppies. No puppies, no dogs. No, no. Humans are taking the place of dogs, and humans will be harnessed into in in front of a dog sled. You know, you know, so a traditional with a musher on the back. So teams of four, three pulling, one doing the mushing. Wow.

SPEAKER_04 45:41

So four pulling and one riding or three.

SPEAKER_10 45:44

No, it's it's three. This sounds hard.

SPEAKER_02 45:47

Okay. I mean, I'll be I'll be the mushers.

SPEAKER_10 45:49

I'll call I get to ride on the sled. Right. I think there were teams of five or six in the past. They brought it down a little bit and re-jiggered the harnesses a little bit. Because just so that it's easier for people to put teams together and commit. So it's a little bit easier to um get a team together and register.

SPEAKER_04 46:03

Late Geneva Country means this had teams in this in the world. I understand.

SPEAKER_10 46:06

And I know you're champions. Don't you win a few years? No, but we like that rumor.

SPEAKER_04 46:10

That's how it's he's the one. I do like that rumor, but no, I dogs team? Yes, dogs team. They were they brought like the high school cross-country team.

SPEAKER_10 46:19

Oh young kids. Um no, there's a strategy.

SPEAKER_04 46:23

I'm gonna give you some some strategy. So the the biggest problem is making sure everybody runs at the same speed. You don't want to have yeah. So it's not necessarily the fastest team, it's everybody can run the same speed. Also, you think you want the lightest person on the back. I would say you really kind of want someone with a little bit of weight, because otherwise that gets ungainly and starts pulling out.

SPEAKER_10 46:44

Ah, the sled is.

SPEAKER_04 46:45

And when you think about you have a couple people pulling, you know, it's like um feed a pall bear. Oh, trying to lift that by yourself is pretty hard, but if you got six people, it's not that difficult. So if you, you know, you you're distributing the weight, it's not that bad. You're on snow, there's runners. So if you have someone, you don't want, you know, like myself, big dude on there, but you also probably don't want the 90-pound girl. Some people try to use a little child.

SPEAKER_02 47:12

Yeah, where the sled is just flying all over. Okay, that's a good ad pro advice. I've never, you know, I just moved back here a couple years ago and I never even gotten to see this. So I'm so excited to see it and maybe make all my friends compete in it. It's still room for competitors?

SPEAKER_10 47:27

Yes, we're still taking registrations um until I think the deadline is I want to say the 29th. So this is on Friday night, so it's about a day or two before. Okay. So if you go to winterfestlg.com, there's an activity highlight listing on that home page. Just look for that under under the Friday date. And there's a little register button, it'll tell you all about it. So I love it. Um again, they're looking for teams of four. You can get, and the great part is you have fun with this. Dress up in costumes and have fun with it. Um, we'll provide the sled, the harnesses, we'll provide all the gear. You just provide the human power, the main power.

SPEAKER_02 47:54

You know what? And you guys, you could have your very own sign made by Bridget Leach if you sign up a team, okay? This is very valuable. I will come down and I will dress up and make you a big poster board sign if you sign up today. So your own cheering section. That's right. I mean, that's pretty valuable. I don't know. Why are you looking at me like this? So Nick is also gonna go.

SPEAKER_04 48:15

You're gonna get to like five different events Friday night. Because you got the Coco Crawl, you got the bonfires, you got the fire spinners, you got the dog races.

SPEAKER_02 48:23

Luckily, it's all walkable. So you can walk back and forth between all these things we've talked about today, so I don't have to get back in my car. I can just walk around and do all these things.

SPEAKER_10 48:31

And the weather is going to be perfect for spectators and nativity. I mean, Mother Nature has just really.

SPEAKER_02 48:37

If you guys have been listening to our podcast, you know that Nick often doubts things that I say. So you guys can hold me to it, okay? Check me out at all the Winterfest events.

SPEAKER_04 48:46

We're gonna hear a kid's corner next week on Sunday about how you dragged Elliot to five different events. He had a meltdown.

SPEAKER_02 48:52

Yeah, that might happen, okay. But we're there, we're doing it. That's what matters.

SPEAKER_10 48:58

Bring the wagon, the stroller, the flood, whatever you gotta do, they'll sleep. He'll have a lot of chocolate. I think, yeah. A lot of cocoa, do you know, sugar him up. I know. He'll be good. I'm glad. Thank you for the support, you know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:12

Sorry, Nick.

SPEAKER_10 49:12

You know what? You keep him occupied, so many wonderful things to see and do. He'll be he'll be he'll be so energized by everything going on, he won't want to I'm not worried about it. He won't burn down.

SPEAKER_04 49:23

So, where can we get all the information about all the events, all the directions, the parking shuttles, the sculptors, the all the stuff. Where can we get all that information?

SPEAKER_10 49:33

All the good stuff is online at winterfestlg.com. Awesome. And there's a main page where you can just check out the highlights. We also have a special page just for a day, a daily calendar. So if you're looking for a specific day that you want to go, just click through to that that schedule and activities link on there. Also check out, there's also great um uh outline of all the teams. So you can say who the teams are, where they're from, what they're gonna be sculpting, what their messages. That's really fun. Yeah, check that out. That's cool. Um and then also there's a link to this you mentioned the shuttles. The city of Lake Geneva has been kind enough to offer shuttles just like they've done for Oktoberfest and some other great events. So they're trying to get people as comfortable as possible, park in one of these remote lots, Home Depot, and some other places, and just take the bus on in and walk a few blocks, and you're right there in the front of Winterfest, right in the middle of a way to do it.

SPEAKER_02 50:18

Don't bother with parking downtown and like you can walk to all these awesome things going on.

SPEAKER_10 50:22

You can grab a bite to eat and warm up and so the ice sculptures pop into those shops, say thanks to those business owners for sculpt for um sponsoring those sculptures and uh making it a great Winterfest week. How exciting!

SPEAKER_04 50:34

Can't wait. Thanks so much for your time, we really appreciate you.

SPEAKER_02 50:37

Yeah, we know you're busy this week, so thanks for taking the time out. We can't wait. We'll see you this weekend. See you at Winterfest.

SPEAKER_04 50:49

So, my real tip for the human dog sled race is wear metal spikes, but they banned them. Like, good luck to these people. I mean, we we when we did it, we wore metal baseball spikes. It gave us good traction. I think maybe they banned it because of us. We're like the Houston Astros and our Stein stealing. So thanks again to Deanna. She's a very busy lady this week. We appreciate her time. And uh now we're gonna go talk to Chase from Geno's East, and we're pretty excited to be teaming up with them on the polar bar. Chase,

Chase from Gino's East - Polar Bar

SPEAKER_04 51:25

you got a lot going on with the Winterfest, the polar bar here at Gino's East, right on the lake shore. Um thing I'm most excited about is the Tito's ice shot.

SPEAKER_01 51:38

Absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 51:39

What is an ice shot?

SPEAKER_01 51:40

So we have an ice mold uh where the Tito's gets poured into this ice shot glass. Uh you'll take the shot glass and then throw it against uh our backboard, um, which is all logoed up with Tito's and uh Gino's logo so you can take a picture after you throw it. Um you try to hit our deep dish pan and it's not like big.

SPEAKER_04 52:00

I mean it's what, 12 inches, 14 inches?

SPEAKER_01 52:03

It's about a 12 inch uh deep ditch pan, so you gotta have some accuracy to hit that.

SPEAKER_04 52:07

I tried to do this last year. Me and my buddy stuff. Uh we stopped by. It's not it's not easy. Have you have you done it?

SPEAKER_01 52:15

No, yeah, I've done it. I've done it. Um it's a good time. Yeah, you definitely have to have a good grip on the iced uh ice shot glass, but uh that's a lot of fun, just something to do with uh friends and get out and about the top.

SPEAKER_04 52:28

I mean because Tito's is really good, right? Everyone likes a little shot of Tito's and then actually a shot glass of ice and just throw it against the backboard and see if you can break it. What do you get if you break it?

SPEAKER_01 52:40

Uh we have some 10% off coupons so that way if you do hit it, yeah. You'll get one of those and join next to the city. Like it's yeah, it's it's pretty challenging.

SPEAKER_04 52:48

It's like some carni game where you guys are just cheating. Right. You can't do it. It's really hard.

SPEAKER_01 52:54

Break the system. Break the system, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 52:56

So you guys got the polar bar, there's the Tito Shots, there's uh you're gonna have uh actually really pretty cool. You guys got uh founder of Linkfront Brewery coming down, right?

SPEAKER_01 53:07

Yeah, yeah. Jim, uh one of the co-founders of Lakefront Brewery is gonna be doing samples from uh 1 p.m. until 3 p.m. Um so there's gonna be a lot of activities going on. He'll be uh hanging out those samples of the beers we have on draft and the cans.

SPEAKER_04 53:19

Um you have Copper Porter on tap right now. We're sitting at the bar because we're out so uh but Lakefront, I mean, if if you like beer but you don't necessarily like all the crazy stuff that that's going on, Lakefront's a great bat, very easy drinking, good, solid quality beers, and Jim's a really nice guy. Have you ever met Jim before?

SPEAKER_01 53:40

I have not met Jim, so I'm excited to meet him and have him uh come down for us.

SPEAKER_04 53:43

He's been down here before. He's a really cool guy. Like, I think if if people want to talk to somebody that likes beers, cool dude, like awesome opportunity to meet him.

SPEAKER_01 53:54

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 53:55

So you guys, obviously you got the Tito thing, you got the lakefront thing, food? Got food?

SPEAKER_01 54:01

Yeah, actually, uh this year will be our first year that we're gonna have a smoker out there. Uh and luckily for us, we have to make a meeting. Uh so we're gonna be using uh doing some pulled pork, uh brisket, some chicken wings, um smoked mac and cheese. Smoked mac and cheese, now that is the best. Yeah, yeah. So uh um be cooked by our head chef uh Alex, so we're looking forward to that, and uh it should be a good time.

SPEAKER_04 54:28

Everybody loves winter fest. It's fun to like walk around like the sculptors, but then like you want to drink. Absolutely. At least I want to drink. And I'm also hungry. So um you know, I'm the meat guy, I shouldn't say this, but like go over here and get shot about getting some smoked mac and cheese because cars are delicious.

SPEAKER_01 54:47

Absolutely, and we're like right across in the park, so we're at like the perfect stop uh after you're looking at the sculptures.

SPEAKER_04 54:53

Dun Lumber's gonna come down, they're gonna have uh big green egg out, doing some cool kind of demo stuff. If you ever looked at um thinking about buying a big green egg, I got a big green egg. You know we love them, they're awesome.

SPEAKER_01 55:05

Yeah, I've heard nothing but good things about them. I've I've uh had some food cooked on one and it was amazing. Um I've yet to buy one myself, but we'll see after this weekend.

SPEAKER_04 55:15

You're gonna be in the like, hey man, can you hook me up on the discount? Yeah, yeah. Exactly. Um gotta get the gotta get the big green egg. You know the food. Um hot chocolate? Hot chocolate. It's gonna be cold.

SPEAKER_01 55:26

Yep, yep. We'll have a complimentary uh hot chocolate bar. Uh but for those that want to warm up a little bit more, uh we'll have some we'll have some bailey's bailey's available. Bailey's oh, uh so you can pass up the uh classic hot chocolate hot chocolate and uh add a little warmth to it.

SPEAKER_04 55:42

So got the Bailey's hot chocolate, got uh some cornhole, uh just nice good old time big giant beer pong as well.

SPEAKER_01 55:51

Giant wait. Giant beer pong, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 55:53

Are there like Pride at Steak or what's going on?

SPEAKER_01 55:56

Like, I'm honestly not sure how it's gonna be working. But uh they told me.

SPEAKER_04 56:00

Because we got like two weeks before. Yeah. I mean, this interview we're taping a little early, so you got some time to figure this out.

SPEAKER_01 56:05

Yep, yep. Uh but their their big red solo cup uh beer pong table, so uh it should be it should be fun and very interesting.

SPEAKER_04 56:14

Bring your friends. Absolutely. See if you can win it. I mean, you might be good at regular beer pong, but let's see if you can do giant beer beer.

SPEAKER_01 56:22

Exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 56:24

So uh Chase, thanks for the time. Appreciate it. Everybody coming down to Polar Bar at uh Geno's East, right next to Harbor Stores in Lake Geneva. For sure. Happy Winterfest. Yeah, same to you. Thanks again to Chase for taking some time out to talk to us about the polar bar. We hope you all stop down, get some smoked brisket, ribs, whatever, try an ice shot. It's gonna be a good time and a great way to warm up. Next up is the interview you've all been waiting for. We're talking to Heather, who is one of the sculptors on Team Dino Fight representing Minnesota. And I've gotten to know her over the years as we've um crossed paths throughout the snow sculpting process, and she's pretty awesome. I think how she talks about the way they come up with inspiration for the snow sculpting is pretty cool. So I hope you enjoy this interview.

Heather from Team Dino Fight - Snow Sculpting

SPEAKER_04 57:20

Heather from Team Dino Fight.

SPEAKER_03 57:22

It has been a pleasure getting to know you over the years as you return to Lake Geneva a couple times for the United States National Snow Sculpting Competition. Um, thanks for joining us on the podcast today.

SPEAKER_08 57:32

Oh gosh, thank you so much for having me. It's such a pleasure.

SPEAKER_03 57:36

So, Team Dino Fight, you guys are representing Minnesota.

SPEAKER_04 57:40

And I saw um you put up on Facebook a sketch of what you're planning to sculpt, and it looks really cool. It's um like a mermaid thing with like or woman? I don't know, but it is like third kind of it's really cool. Um and you kind of already got changed a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 58:02

Could you explain what the design is, how it got changed, why it got changed a little bit, and um kind of give us an overview of what the design is.

SPEAKER_08 58:11

Absolutely. So what we are doing with here is um we were inspired by the art of Art Nouveau, which was a movement back in the 1920s, um that was about nature and people and and bringing out like the elements that bring them together. And so our culture, the story behind it, is that a woman was reading a book and um he was inspired by the things that she read in the book, and the creature started coming out and pulling out the thing to become one with the nature that you read. And so that's our story for a keep. And um, as you mentioned, it's the design that we originally started with, um, which is uh got modified slightly because of the weather. And so this is supposed to be a little bit warmer than it has in here in the past. And our original design would have been uh a really good design for very cold weather due to kind of the structural elements of it that were telling you. But we did have to modify it slightly, but we still have our concept of our woman reading a book and the creature coming out and flowing around and becoming one with them.

SPEAKER_04 59:21

That is so interesting to me because I never thought of the fact that how cold or how warm it is would affect how you can do what you know, different types of elements like the colder weather helped together as much as 40, or how does that work?

SPEAKER_08 59:43

Uh you know, it feels like metal. So when it's cold, metal it's pretty rigid and hard. And when it gets warm enough, like for example, it's like in the low to mid-30s, it gets hard to get hard. And so if you have more natural elements like we do in everyone, like we do, because we have like a file going on that's unsupported a little bit. Yeah, you have to really take into consideration the fact that that architectural element does rely on a certain amount of legitimate. And so um we had to modify it like we can get it, and then left through the judge.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:22

It looks really awesome. We're gonna put a picture of the catch. And uh you can go look at it. What how do you how do you get like these ideas?

SPEAKER_04 1:00:34

I look at it, I'm like, holy cow, I can like come up with no culture. How do you guys get inspired for each year and do multiple competitions here?

SPEAKER_03 1:00:44

So like how do you come up with all these ideas and inspiration?

SPEAKER_08 1:00:47

That's a really great question. It comes at those moments where you can downtime where you bring the kind of recording. And actually that is the kind of thing. So um talking about our culture throughout the year, too. So um earlier this summer I was proposing doing some kind of art we vote. And uh it we talk back and forth, and you know, we all bring things and I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:31

It feels like it's gonna be super challenging to make.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:33

Are there certain like elements in it that really concern you about like, oh, if we threw this out, like it's not gonna go well, or something that like a new twist that you're bringing through it here that you uh think that can be either gonna be a challenge or fun or really fulfilling?

SPEAKER_08 1:01:50

Well, we have a couple of challenges this year.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:53

So um don't just have one, we can have a few.

SPEAKER_08 1:01:58

I think that okay. We traditionally have only worked um with animal imagery and nature imagery that is not human. Um is definitely a deviation for what we normally do, but we felt like we needed to write up to that kind of thing from figure. And um, you know, like only that we can think of the people. We have to get it right. We have to do that. So we're um we've done a bunch of planning. We have our clay model and all of our kind, and we're really like working on our proportions and we we can't nail it. Um I call it the bird ladder, but it's like a bunch of birds flying up out of the clock with uh vines and uh it's like a clutter. And of course, you know, as I mentioned before, we are concerned a little bit about Mother Nature and a bit warm, so that's gonna be a other thing.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:55

I really hope that bird ladder comes off because it's so cool looking in the scratch. I mean I think I've been to all 25 years and I've never seen anything like that. So um that would be amazing.

SPEAKER_08 1:03:10

Do you have like any I'm really trying to never seen anything like it either, and I've been um proving a lot of the um no-call thing things took an Instagram being like, has anybody ever done that? And I haven't seen anything like it, so I'm really hopeful that it actually plays up and works out.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:28

Do you think there's gonna be a lot of other teams like how it's called it out like you know, reference if you haven't seen that before? Because you guys have a pretty good camaraderie between all the different teams, right?

SPEAKER_08 1:03:39

Oh yeah. Oh gosh, well we all support each other and um the really warm and inviting and wonderful.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:48

Well you need someone to keep it yourself warm after being the call.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:55

Do you have any uh specific inspiration for the woman feature, or is this gonna kinda be um a classic art evil lady, or is there uh someone special that's kind of part of inspiration for that?

SPEAKER_08 1:04:09

You know, we we did look at a lot of traditional art and vote, although we of course have our own special hand in our um, so everybody you know finalizes people a different way, and we've written our own Team Dino Fight one.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:25

Awesome. Well, Heather, thank you so much for your time. I really hope everybody goes. Checks out Team Dino Fight representing Minnesota in the United United States National Film Sculpting Competition. You can see if the ladder comes off, you can check out if those proportions are perfect, as I'm sure they will be on the lady's face. We'll put up the sketch so everybody can take a look at it.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:48

And um, yeah, stop by say hi to you guys and obviously vote for you in the people's choice, right?

SPEAKER_08 1:04:53

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:01

That was so cool to be able to hear from one of the sculptors themselves because they're like mini celebrities to me. It's such works of art that they create.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:09

And it always just blows my mind how they go from this big tube of snow to art.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:14

And the process to me, the whole behind the scenes, if if you're local or if you're visiting this week before the sculpting starts, it's really cool to see how they pack the forms like we were talking about earlier with Deanna, and then go, yeah, all the way into these amazing pieces of art. So love talking to them. The teams are so friendly and they love when you chat with them. So come on down, meet them, check out their work, and and catch the whole process.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:36

Thanks for listening to this podcast episode. It's uh a little special, something we wanted to do to talk about, something we love in our hometown. If you haven't been a subscriber to the podcast, we release podcasts every Sunday where Bridget and I talk about food, kids, drinks, life. All the things you'd talk about over a good glass of wine and some meat. Plus, we also will release some long-form interviews talking about things like what wine's gonna be popular in 2020 and Winterfest, among other things. We hope you'll subscribe, keep downloading.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:09

Send us a note, we love to hear from you. So hello at dinnerplusdrinks.com or check out the website, and you can always send us a note from there as well.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:16

If you want more information about Winterfest, check out the Visit Lake Geneva website. We have a link to that in the show notes or at dinnerplusdrinks.com. You can check out all the notes that we have about Winterfest in the episode page for this, and fill out the contact form to send us feedback if you'd like to do it that way.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:31

And thanks again for all the time that our interviewees took by um sitting down with us and telling us about the awesome events coming up. We hope to see you downtown.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:39

Cheers, everybody. Happy Winterfest.