Milwaukee bustles with activity every the summer. The lakefront is lush; the festivals are frequent. It feels like everyone is everywhere doing everything. But when winter pulls a gray haze over the city, the beaches become barren and it almost seems like everyone in the city cooped up to hibernate.
Last year, Kate Pociask started Winter Break to change that. The festival returns to Bradford Beach this year on Saturday, Feb. 8 and Havenwoods State Forest on Saturday, Feb. 15.
“Milwaukee is a city of festivals, and in the summer and even the bumper seasons of spring and fall, we do a great job of remembering to celebrate the things going on, the people that make this place great, or the fun, wacky stuff,” Pociask says. “In the wintertime, I just don’t see as much of that.”
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
On Saturday, Feb. 8 from 12-4 p.m., the festival comes to Bradford Beach, welcoming Milwaukeeans who will be bundled up for activities like biking, a cold dip, surfing, a beach bonfire and more.
“It’ll be a lot like hanging out on the beach in the summer, except we’ll be wearing our coats,” Pociask says with a laugh.
Pociask is most looking forward to sand-sculpting – a new addition this year – and to seeing what sand art people create on the beach’s canvas.
Next weekend, Winter Break is traveling to Havenwoods State Forest on Saturday, Feb. 15 from 12-4 p.m. The event will include fat tire bike rides, fireside poetry, Nordic walking and dog sled rides.
MKE Bento will be on-site both weekends with a seasonal winter menu, including dumplings, rice bowls, hot sandwiches and spicy noodles.
After last year’s inaugural Winter Break, Pociask says the community response was “more, more, more.”
“While people had things they enjoyed, like ‘I loved meeting the dogs, I loved going on the bike rides,’ [the positive response] was overwhelmingly around the idea of making new friends or meeting old friends,” she says.
Winter Break became an LLC this year, with ambitions to become a non-profit. Pociask wants the festival to be a community-supported event that grows and expands throughout the winter seasons with more weekend events.
“February just needed that shot in the arm, so to speak,” she says.
You can see the full schedule of both weekend’s activities and RSVP on Winter Break’s website.
