LAC LA BICHE - When the Winter Festival of Speed returns to the ice of Lac La Biche Lake this March, it will be rolling under a new name, the Lac La Biche Ice Festival of Speed.
Ken Staples, who has spent 40 years as the founding organizer of the annual winter event filled with high-octane car, sled and ATV races, said in addition to racing, the popular annual event has added more winter and ice-related activities in recent years. Because of those additions, the committee behind the event has been slowly updating the weekend’s theme. This year, the name got an update too.
The Lac La Biche Ice Festival of Speed will be taking place from Feb. 28-March 2.
“It’s a little broader definition of what the event is,” Staples told Lakeland This Week. “It just keeps growing and evolving.”
Another reason for the name change, Staples went on, was that the group which conducted the Festival of Speed annually going back to the mid-to-late 1990s, the Lakeland Classic Wheels Club, is now down to only a few members, and was no longer able to register as a provincial society, and could no longer help to organize the event.
So the newly formed Lac La Biche Ice Festival Society emerged.
The creation of the society allows for grants and donations to continuing being part of the event as it grows.
Planes, sleds and automobiles
The origins of the ice racing weekend began the frozen surface of Beaver Lake with motorcycle races. Car races were soon added and the event moved to Lac La Biche lake. Over the years, snowmobile races and ATV races were added to the high-octane event, which in now also home to the Western Canadian Ice Racing Championships. In more recent years, vintage snowmobile events are held on the same weekend, as well as displays from the Alberta Trappers’ Association, snowmobile trail rides, ice carving and an on-ice aircraft fly-in.
The fly-in, said Staples, is a big draw during the weekend of snow and ice activities. In recent years, he added, a few executives from the Lac La Biche Flying Club have been out on the runway with headphones on serving as aircraft controllers because there wasn’t enough room in the parking areas to safely land all the aircraft that had flown in.
“That has grown more than we ever anticipated that it would,” Staples said. “I had a couple of years where we’ve had more than 100 aircraft come in.”
While the Festival of Speed may have been renamed, Staples says the basic direction of the event remains unchanged. Those who come for the 2025 edition of the festival will be able to see and enjoy the Western Canadian Ice Racing Championships, snowmobile drag races, a trail ride, and the aircraft fly-in.
More family
There will also be a kid’s carnival and kid-friendly zone that will offer a variety of outdoor winter activities, as well as an on-ice trade show, job fair and makers’ market.
New the next festival weekend will be mega trucks racing on the ice for the first time ever, as well as the return of the Rob McCormick Memorial Lac La Biche Kinsmen Pond hockey tournament.
The tournament has been held as a standalone event for several years, not taking place on the same weekend. Organizers this year, however, have brought the popular outdoor hockey tournament into the festival weekend.
“There are four rinks, and that will be right in the centre of the main hub area,” he said, adding that the one-day tournament will feature intermediate age hockey teams and will be happening on Saturday, March 1.
A full weekend
On the afternoon of Friday, Feb. 28, people will be able to see sleds, race cars, mega race trucks, and ice carvers that will be showcased in an event taking place in downtown Lac La Biche. For fans of country music, the Bold Center is hosting a concert featuring Canadian artists Jess Moskaluke & Aaron Pritchett.
Regarding how preparations have been going for the 2025 Ice Festival of Speed, Staples tells the Lac La Biche Post newsroom that things are moving along smoothly. He said the committee started planning the event in September, and has been receiving help from Lac La Biche County. The County, he added, not only steps up with financial support, but also supplies much of the equipment that is needed to build the facilities for the festival.
“We’re in pretty good shape,” he said. “So much of what we do is in coordination with the County.”
The annual festival, Staples continued, is a very important event for the Lac La Biche area that attracts large crowds and is a positive experience for everyone. He continued by saying all profits from the weekend are distributed to the local groups that provide the needed volunteers, and over $350,000 has been given out to date. On an average year, he said, there are about 200 volunteers representing various community groups.
“It’s become a huge draw…have people come from all over western Canada,” he stated. “It attracts a lot of people, and it creates very positive buzz for the community.”
For more information about the 2025 Lac La Biche Ice Festival of Speed, there are details on the group’s social media pages. More details can be found from Staples at 780 404-3183 or kenstaples@telusplanet.net.