Fireworks rain down over the Totally ‘80s 2022 Ice Palace during the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival closing ceremony in February. (Enterprise photo — Lauren Yates)

SARANAC LAKE — It’s time for the community to vote on what the 2023 Winter Carnival theme should be. The Winter Carnival Committee is asking the public to vote for and pitch ideas on its Facebook page.

The only rules for pitching is to find themes “with wide appeal for kids and adults that isn’t copyrighted,” according to the Committee.

The theme selection process usually takes place over three meetings — pitching ideas, weeding them down and selecting them. This year, it will only take two meetings, and a large part of the process will take place on social media.

As of Thursday evening, the theme suggestion post had more than 215 comments.

“I’ve seen a couple of really great ideas, some things that we never would have thought about,” Committee Chairman Jeff Branch said.

To vouch for a theme, comment and like comments under the post.

Ultimately, the theme will be chosen by the Winter Carnival Committee at its May 3 meeting. This meeting is open to anyone who wants to attend and vote.

“If you show up to a meeting, you’re part of the committee,” Branch said.

In the last two years, the committee chose the theme just a few months before Carnival, but Branch said they’d like to give people more time to prepare again.

So far, Committee members have pitched seven ideas at a Tuesday meeting, which are listed on its Facebook page.

Wizards and Dragons has a lot of support on the Carnival’s Facebook post. Milt Adams has been pitching the theme for around 15 years now.

On the Facebook post, John Marona advocated for Music Legends.

“Every generation has it’s favorites,” he wrote. “Would be fun.”

The ’70s is one of the few 20th Century decades that hasn’t had a Carnival yet, and after the 2022 Carnival theme was Totally ’80s, it would bring Saranac Lake back into the time machine.

“Bring back the 70’s!” Susan Hennessy Dwyer wrote on Facebook.

Festival of Fools was pitched as a time for people to let loose and be goofy, especially after years of staying indoors.

Party of the Century, pitched by Enterprise Managing Editor Elizabeth Izzo, would be a return to the writer Truman Capote’s legendary “Black and White Ball” in 1966. The ball was about glamor, but also about breaking down barriers.

“I have always observed, in almost every situation … that people tend to cling to their own types,” Capote told Esquire magazine. “The very rich people, for instance, tend to like the company of very rich people. … I have thought for years that it would be interesting to bring these disparate people together and see what happens.”

Enterprise Advertising Representative Susan Moore, who suggested Welcome to the Jungle, said it would be a fun theme for children and adults alike, with many costume opportunities. Anne Stacy on Facebook also went in another direction, suggesting a Guns N’ Roses tribute band could play on opening night with Slash and Axl impersonators.

Committee Secretary Nancy LaBombard brought up the Video Games theme, which former Enterprise reporter Griffin Kelly pitched in 2020. Kelly now lives downstate and works for the New York Post, but Branch offered to vouch for the theme for him in his absence.

The post to vote on existing themes or pitch a new one on the “Saranac Lake Winter Carnival” Facebook page can be found at https://bit.ly/3qfAx8B.