Getting an early start this year, the Winter Carnival Council will announce today the theme for this year's Winter Carnival -- " 'Twas a Cold and Snowy Knight: A Medieval Carnival."
Winter Carnival will run from Feb. 6 through Feb. 9.
Winter Carnival Council Co-Chair Amy Henry '97 said the selection of this year's theme took "a collective effort," a combination of ideas from new members as well as those members previously involved in Carnival.
"It was quite a long process, trashing themes and going back and rethinking them," she said.
Henry said the council considered themes with highly visual images to create many options for potential sculptures.
"We wanted something we thought we could work with, and could have a lot of events thematically linked to it, as well as a good sculpture," she said.
Chris Aslin '97, sculpture co-chair, said there are no firm plans for the sculpture at this point.
"It will probably be something to the effect of a knight on a horse," he said.
Aslin said construction of the sculpture would begin with the construction of a wooden frame a few days before Winter term classes begin.
"As soon as there's enough snow, and the frame is up, we'll start working on the snow part," he said. "It will probably be a couple of weeks into the term."
"If there's no snow, it could push things back a bit," Aslin said.
In past years, lack of snow has forced the council to bring snow from the hockey rink.
"We're keeping our fingers crossed [for snow]," he said. "The Farmer's Almanac says there will be lots."
Aslin said large-scale student participation is important for the construction of the sculpture.
"The last few years, we've had a dozen people who come out and work a lot, and then some randoms," he said. "We're hoping to get a lot more people out for a couple of hours every few days this year."
Henry said the weekend is in its planning stages.
"We are in the preparation stages of everything," she said. "Basically, what we do is publicize events and organize them in some digestible frame."
The Council will solicit entries from the public for a poster and t-shirt design contest, Henry said. Entries will be due the first week in January.
New publicity plans also call for a World Wide Web page. Henry said the page should be up in the next few weeks.
"We are compiling history and things we've had at our fingertips, but have never had the resources to share," she said. "It's a mechanism where students and other people can contribute."
Henry said participation and spirits are high among council members.
"We are really excited because we are starting a bit earlier with meetings than we have in the past," she said. "We have more people ... committed and coming to meetings than we have ever had before. We feel really good about it."
