‘There’s something for everyone’: Inside Fredericton’s FROSTival 2026

A tunnel of lights brightens Officer’s Square during Fredericton’s annual FROSTival. (Credit: FROSTival official site)

For Fredericton locals looking for fun ways to wait out the cold, Atlantic Canada’s largest winter festival, known as FROSTival, has arrived. 

Running for three weekends, from Jan. 22 to Feb. 8., the festival has a wide variety of indoor and outdoor activities for locals to enjoy.

During the last weekend of January, three local rinks hosted free skates, with Sandwith’s Sleigh Rides set to conclude the festival’s final weekend and several Officer’s Square skating parties to come.

For the indoorsy, performance-oriented individual, Birch & Teal Productions and Theatre New Brunswick played The Importance of Being Earnest and a double-feature of The Velveteen Rabbit and A Canyon Contained.

The first weekend of FROSTival saw some events being postponed due to the weather, while others ran as usual, such as the first skating party.

Ashley Johnston, the festival’s team lead, said she has enjoyed leading skate parties. 

Her previous year in the position took her on a “learning curve” with the weather and determining when an event should go forward.

“Do we cancel these parties when it's really cold? The answer is, no, [we] don't. We don't ever want people to feel like they're going to be turned away or they can't come to Officer’s Square … if it's really cold, we make sure that people have spaces that they can shelter if they need to.”

Johnston said that what she most cherishes about coordinating the festival is seeing people come together in shared experiences.

“I think that winter can be so isolating and it's a hard time of year for a lot of folks. And I think highlighting the opportunity for us to be social and still build a community and still get out there and support one another, that's really what FROSTival’s about.”

Each year, a “snow dome” is built for FROSTival events as well as Shivering Songs, a music festival which runs alongside it. The fate of the snow dome was uncertain this year due to the addition of a new play structure near the corner of Officer’s Square, though the FROSTival team was successful in its push to keep the dome.

“That was a big goal of ours … Shivering Songs just happened this past weekend and was quite successful. So we're super excited about that.”

Along with skating parties and sleigh rides, Johnston’s culinary background gives her an extra appreciation for Dine Around Freddy, another FROSTival festivity.

“There's something for everyone. So even if my interests are very specific, such as the culinary world, if you like sports … if you like paint and sips, all those kinds of things, there's literally something everywhere and you can take part in it.”

This upcoming weekend will mark the end of FROSTival 2026, with festivities to kick off the remainder of winter in Fredericton.