Traffic on River Street moved at a slow crawl most of the day Saturday as throngs of people moved between Riverside Park and the Ice Palace. Many were decked out in furry animal hats in keeping with this year’s “Adirondack Wildlife” theme.

“We came up for Winter Carnival because we’ve never been here before,” said Laurie Oliver of Glens Falls as she and her husband Scott and her mom Lois Chandler stood outside the Ice Palace. “The Ice Palace is awesome. We’re going to to check out the chocolate festival and the craft fair (at the Harrietstown Town Hall), have some lunch in town. We’re having a great time.”

Nearby, members of the Lake Placid Curling Club were putting on a curling exhibition on the ice of Lake Flower, and Sam Churco was busy setting up Flowerball, a cross between bowling, shuffleboard and curling. He said the conditions were perfect for the first day of carnival.

“It’s about 20 degrees, cloudy so you’re not squinting, and we have lots of people and lots of energy,” Churco said. “This is the third year of Flowerball, and I love to do it because everybody just has fun with it. I like to watch people have fun.”

Edward DeLeon, far left, surveys progress on the bear sculpture built as an Arctic Golf obstacle by Saranac Lake ArtWorks and BluSeed Studios Saturday. (Enterprise photo — Chris Knight)

Winter Carnival King John Wamsganz and Queen Anita Meserole were definitely having fun. They moved slowly through the crowd, greeting visitors and posing for pictures. They seemed to be smiling all the time.

“I’m enjoying myself,” Meserole said. “We’re lucky we have such a great day. We’re having a great time.”

“I’m just looking forward to being with people and having fun,” Wamsganz said. “We took our pictures with some people from New Jersey, and they loved it. It’s great to represent Saranac Lake.”

A short walk from the Ice Palace, various groups of people were building obstacles for Arctic Golf, using snow, ice and PVC pipes.

Edward DeLeon, Carol Vossler and others were building a big bear obstacle, complete with a large, brown paper mache bear head. The project, dubbed “Stronger Together,” is a partnership between BluSeed Studios and Saranac Lake ArtWorks, which recently merged.

A girl heaves a fry pan during the Little Ladies Fry Pan Toss in Riverside Park, part of Saturday’s Saranac Lake Winter Carnival opening day festivities. (Enterprise photo — Chris Knight)

“We wanted to do something to promote the unity of the two and bring more people into the area,” DeLeon said. “It’s a lot of fun. The good thing about carnival is it really brings the community together.”

Lots of people came together throughout the day Saturday in Riverside Park, where the Paul Smith’s College Woodsmen’s Team put on an exhibition, and the Little Ladies and Ladies Fry Pan Toss events were held.

Later that night, a big crowd turned up to see the lighting of the Ice Palace and a fireworks display over Lake Flower.

“We were talking, a few of us on the committee, and it was more people than all of us have ever seen,” said Colleen O’Neill, who handles publicity for the carnival. “Usually down toward NBT Bank you see a crowd, but this time it was all the way down here (at the River Street-Church Street intersection), too. When you looked both directions there were people as far as you could see. It was a huge crowd.”

O’Neill said comfortable weather for being outside, people coming over from the Empire State Winter Games in Lake Placid and publicity through the state’s I Love NY program helped bring so many people here this weekend.

Saranac Lake Winter Carnival Chamberlain Josh Dann, left, and Archbishop Kelly Spadaro are all smiles after stopping by the curling exhibition on Lake Flower Saturday. (Enterprise photo — Chris Knight)

O’Neill said carnival seemed just as busy on Sunday. The day’s events included Arctic Golf, the White Stag Downhill Ski Races and Arctic Bar-B-Que at Mount Pisgah Ski Center, Ultimate Frisbee Games at Saranac Lake High School.

Last year, there wasn’t much snow around for the opening weekend of carnival. This year it’s been a very different story. The Saranac Lake area had plenty of snow before carnival and it continued to get more over the weekend, including another 2 to 3 inches that blanketed the area Sunday night.

The weather forecast for this Saturday’s Gala Parade, with snow and temperatures in the low 30s, could draw in even more people, O’Neill said.

“Whenever you have like a mild winter day, there’s going to be tons more people coming out,” she said. “Last parade, everybody rushed through because they were so cold. This year, people will be able to go slower and take their time and enjoy it.”