Protest forces cancellation of Madison Winter Festival

Fri, Feb  18, 2011 - By Mike Muha

Madison Winter Festival was prepared to stage the event with plenty of snow stored for all activities. However, yesterday festival organizers were notified that the event is not allowed to have any activities on the Capitol Square this weekend because of the protests over Gov. Scott Walker's proposal to strip collective bargaining rights from nearly all state employees.

"There's not much we can do about it," festival president Yuriy Gusev said Thursday evening, just hours after he vowed that a week of high temperatures and melting snow would not daunt plans for a two-day event filled with sledding, snowshoeing, cross-country ski races and more.

Plans to transport nearly 100 truckloads of snow from the Alliant Energy Center to Capitol Square for the festival have been canceled, he said. The snow is traditionally used in part to convert pavement near the Capitol into a competitive ski track.