Hardy bunch: 22,000 Winnipeggers celebrate New Year's Eve at The Forks despite numbing cold
Elisha Dacey | CBC News | Posted: January 1, 2018 8:01 PM | Last Updated: January 1, 2018
Numbers down from 30,000 last year when weather was much warmer
While other cities across the country cancelled their New Year's Eve plans, Winnipeg layered up.
About 22,000 people went through The Forks to partake in the evening festivities Sunday, said Chelsea Thomson, spokesperson for The Forks North Portage Partnership.
Those numbers are down from the 30,000 the site saw last year, "when we had more programming, more fireworks and much warmer weather."
"Winnipeggers really are a hardy bunch," she said.
Temperatures hovered around –26 C when the party started, but slowly warmed up to –23 C by the time the fireworks started at midnight, according to Environment Canada.
The evening was hosted by Mayor Brian Bowman and local radio host Ace Burpee. Burpee called the night "easily one of the best New Year's Eve events ever.
"People embraced the cold, the Commons inside The Forks was banging," he said.
"I feel like the cold made it more special. There were tons of people celebrating their first New Year's Eve in Canada, and it made me just so, so happy."
Winnipeg police said Monday that while the night was steady for the WPS, there were no major incidents.