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Children played on a seesaw art installation, parents clutched coffee cups and one man rode a unicycle down Sparks Street as families took in the final day of Winterlude on a chilly Family Day Monday.

It’s an annual tradition for Heather Stortz and her family, who make the trip from the Niagara region to visit family in Ottawa and take in Winterlude. On Monday, Stortz and her extended family were taking in the ice sculptures and art installations on Sparks Street, and were thinking of getting a BeaverTail treat later in the day.

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“It’s our tradition,” Stortz said. “We come every year.”

In recent years, unseasonably warm temperatures meant the ice sculptures on Sparks Street might melt before the end of the three-week Winterlude. But this year, organizers staggered ice-carving events over the three weeks, so people could still take selfies with the sculptures right up until the last day.

“It’s nice that there are fresh ones to see,” Stortz said.

It’s one of the many ways Winterlude is adapting to stay vibrant under a changing climate, says Melanie Brault, director of capital celebrations with Heritage Canada and Winterlude’s spokesperson.

“Going back to 2019, when we saw all the climate change indications of what was coming, we really decided to say, ‘OK, how do we ensure Winterlude goes forward?’ ” Brault said in a recent interview. In years past, Ottawa’s deep-freeze temperatures meant an ice-carving competition could be held on Winterlude’s opening weekend, with festival-goers enjoying them for the next three weeks. But now, the ice-carving invitational is spread out over three weekends.

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Other changes include partnering with other organizations in the capital region to offer more indoor activities, Brault said, along with the classic outdoor events like the Rideau Canal Skateway.

The Skateway opened for the second time this season on Sunday, with skaters finding rough conditions on the ice. The National Capital Commission closed the 1.9-km stretch between Bank and Pretoria again on Sunday night for crews to sweep, grade and flood the ice overnight. The portion of the Skateway opened again on Monday afternoon.

“You can go sliding at Snowflake Kingdom or go to the Big Bang Festival at the (National Arts Centre),” Brault said. “Dependent on who you’re coming to Winterlude with, you might have a two-year-old or an 80-year-old and we want to have those options.”

More than 200 events were planned for this year’s Winterlude, and only a handful were cancelled or altered due to warm weather. For the second year in a row, the BeaverTails Ottawa Ice Dragon Boat Festival was cancelled due to poor ice conditions, but related cultural events still went forward, Brault said.

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READ MORE: Wave of warm weather again forces cancellation of Ottawa Ice Dragon Boat Festival

Similarly, a triathlon that typically involves a skate down the canal was moved to a biathlon.

Ottawa Tourism spokesperson Jérôme Miousse said milder winters in the capital region come with challenges, but there could be silver linings, with out-of-town visitors more likely to visit Ottawa if winter storms aren’t in the forecast.

“Warmer weather also can have the effect of outdoor festivities being more comfortably enjoyed by everyone,” he said via email. “On the other hand, visitor satisfaction can be toned-down by not being able to enjoy the offering they were anticipating, such is the case with cancelation of activities that rely on the Rideau Canal skateway this year.”

On Monday afternoon, Brian and Jennifer Newell were planning to head down to the canal to get a BeaverTail with their daughter Megan.

“It’s nice to be out, to mark the day for Family Day,” Jennifer Newell said.

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