Winterfest. Call it a testament to the hearty Northern folks who live here.

On a seasonably chilly Feb. 1 night – with early evening temperatures hovering around -24 C, which felt like -35 C with the wind chill – Thompsonites still turned out in the hundreds, standing around the recycled Christmas tree bonfire outside the Thompson Regional Community Centre.

Cups of Tim Hortons hot chocolate in hand, they waited patiently for the spectacular fireworks display, more than an hour after some arrived.

All this on a Monday night.

Winterfest, running in one form or another since the 1960s, except for the occasional hiatus as one cadre of volunteers made way for the next, is an important marker on the calendar. It’s the way we all – newcomers and old timers alike – make a statement that we’re here to stay, even in February. As Thompson old timers sometimes tell newcomers: “You might want to consider making friends with winter since it lasts about eight months of the year here.”

A tip of our toque here to Connie Krahenbil, former executive director of the Canadian Mental Health Association Thompson Inc. branch, now living in Winnipeg, who was the driving volunteer force behind Winterfest from 2005 to 2008.

That was the year Winterfest had its most recent near-death experience. In an e-mail to the Winterfest committee on Oct. 22, 2008, Krahenbil wrote: "After our meeting last night the members in attendance decided that we do not have the resources to plan a Winterfest this year. This is primarily due to the lack of volunteers and it was felt that we didn't have enough people to really make this work."

The February 2008 Winterfest was also nearly cancelled, proceeding only after an appeal from committee members for more volunteers generated enough response to keep it going for one more year. About 1,200 Winterfest passes were sold in 2008.

Even then, said Krahenbil, who had also served on the Aurora Fest committee while living earlier in Churchill, said it was always a struggle in Thompson to put on an intense four-day production – a sort of winter version of summer’s Nickel Days. "We just don't have the volunteers to run this," she said at the time. "We just don't have the people to do it."

But the story didn’t end there.

Eight days later on Oct. 30, 2008, the City of Thompson jumped on the Winterfest sleigh in a somewhat uncertain fashion at first – with Mayor Tim Johnston issuing a press release saying: "The city is considering the best approach to a winter celebration and will unveil event details over the next few weeks."

The release went onto add: "The City of Thompson thanks the numerous volunteers and particularly the Winterfest board members who have hosted the successful event annually for more than three decades. The Winterfest board of directors has notified the City of Thompson that they are unable to undertake their responsibilities for the winter festival this year."

So in 2009, the task of salvation, or at least salvaging, Winterfest, fell to Bruce Krentz, the city's director of recreation, parks and culture. Krentz developed a concept paper on winter programing to help offset the cancellation of Winterfest. The programing was to be delivered in partnership with community groups, who could apply for small grants, and was to take shape as a series of separate, smaller events rather than a larger one-time four-day February celebration.

That was the month-long model last year and it is again this year. The form is but Winterfest lives.

Among the highlights this year is the return of the Thompson Playhouse sponsored Beer & Skits evening for its third consecutive year Feb. 20 at the Juniper Centre – a return in 2008 that ended a dozen-year hiatus.

CBC Radio North Country host Mark Szyszlo, and Jim Stewart, members of the boundary-pushing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Low Budget Trash Theatre, from the original incarnation of Beer & Skits, made up half of the skit judging team last year.

Stewart now works in Winnipeg but says he hopes to get back to Thompson to render judgment again this year. Szyszlo is a confirmed returnee as judge.

The original Beer & Skits, which had a long run at the Royal Canadian Legion’s Centennial Hall from the 1980s through the mid-1990s, was famous – or perhaps infamous – for taking on any number of sacred cows, including wickedly spot-on mimicking of former mayor Bill Comaskey, or a monologue by Len Podbisky, the third member of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Low Budget Trash Theatre triumvirate, on just how aboriginal a certain local First Nations chief really was – while Comaskey and the chief were in the audience.

Unfortunately, it all ended rather badly in a legal debacle in the mid-1990s with a member of council – not Comaskey – among several people threatening defamation lawsuits.

The cleaned up and “respectful” Beer & Skits, Thompson Playhouse’s chief annual fundraiser, probably doesn’t have to worry too much about legal liability, although city council, the BRHA and – hard as it is to believe – the Thompson Citizen are all likely to be on the receiving end of more than a few barbs. Attendance was sold out last year with 200 tickets purchased, up from 130 in 2008. Beer & Skits raised about $1,955 for the Thompson Playhouse in 2008 and about $2,500 last year.

And speaking of city council, they won their second straight Beer & Skits trophy last year (so sure were they off winning, they “forgot” to even bring the trophy with them.)

Led by their playwright-in-chief, Coun. Brian Wilson, Mayor Tim Johnston, deputy mayor Harold Smith and councillors Oswald Sawh, Charlene Lafreniere and former councillor Cory Young were in fine form, skewering some of their favourite targets, including the Thompson Citizen.