There’s snow on the ground, but the sunlight is staying out longer and on warmer days you can start to smell the alpine thawing in anticipation of spring. There’s a stirring in Golden this time of year. The Snow King’s MasqueParade is just around the corner, and here’s why you should be in Golden for it.

Arts and culture in Golden are a regular bustle; theatre, film, and live music performances can be found almost weekly throughout all seasons of the year. February, though, has a special air to it, hosting one of the largest annual traditions that Golden has to offer. The wild and silly creatures of the Columbia Valley are gathering to welcome Snow King and Lady Spring down from the mountain. 

The SnowKing’s MasqueParade is a community festival organized by the local arts organization, Kicking Horse Culture, that brings people together in the spirit of creativity and entertainment. The MasqueParade entices folks of all ages to create a costume or performance and share it with the community in Spirit Square. Many of these costumes reflect themes of nature and wildlife and celebrate the transition from the cold to the warm times of the year.

“It harkens back to a time when communities would come together and create their own entertainment”, says Robyn Bowers, the Play House coordinator with KHC who’s been organizing costume-making workshops, “this year’s theme is Out-Of-The-Box. The last three years have been tough on all of us and we wanted to take the opportunity to celebrate being back out and connecting with our community and not being isolated anymore.”

Spirit Square will be lined with flickering lanterns, paper mache creatures and colossal heads will float along the paths and howl at the moon, and fire benders will twist torches around in flaming wreaths. Jugglers, stilt walkers, dancing, and tales, the MasqueParade is a creative scene of merrymaking. The community will come together in an expression of art and the pure delight of seasonal change.

“Over a period of weeks, professional and community-based artists work in collaboration with folks in the community – both young and old and everyone in between – to create a large-scale outdoor ‘pageant’ performed with more than 1000 folks in Golden’s Spirit Square,” reads the Kicking Horse Culture website, “together, we make low tech magic.”

The MasqueParade will be in Spirit Square on February 11th at 6:45 pm, with free admission for anyone. If you’d like to get involved, create a performance, or have a creative idea you can email info@kickinghorseculture.ca, or read more about the event here: https://kickinghorseculture.ca/events/snow-kings-masqueparade-out-of-the-box/