Aggie Pelletieri of Saranac Lake grins as she rides in the inaugural Blue Buns Wheel-a-Palooza Sunday during the 2023 Winter Carnival. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

SARANAC LAKE — The 2024 “Creepy” Winter Carnival starts next weekend, and this year’s schedule features several new events, some transformed events and a couple event date changes.

The traditions of Winter Carnival have been growing in recent years, with the additions of Blue Buns Wheel-a-Palooza, returning for its second running at 1 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 4, Family Night at the Ice Palace, and the ice suncatcher art contest, and this year is a big year for more new traditions.

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Hobby horse race

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Winter Carnival Committee Chair Rob Russell said people should be working on their hobby horses for the inaugural Running of the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival Mid-Winter Derby on the second weekend.

A hobby horse is a horse’s head on a long stick, which can be ridden by running around by a jockey with the stick between their legs.

The tagline for this race is “build it, buy it, ride it.” Russell’s envisioning these as family projects that can done by modifying a broom, mop or any long stick with a horse’s head.

The next step is to give the horse a name — maybe something related to the creepy theme this year. Finally, race day is on Feb. 11 at Riverside Park following the Kiddie Parade. Registration begins at 2:45 p.m. and contests start at 3 p.m.

The Saranac Lake Kiwanis Club has paid for all entry fees into the event, which is sponsored by Adirondack Lakes and Trails Outfitters.

There will be four races: “The Lake Flower Classic” for apprentice jockeys ages 6 to 8, “The Saranac Lake Invitational” for jockeys ages 9 to 12, “The Creepy Carnival Derby” for jockeys ages 13 to 17 and the “Feature Race” featuring the 127th Winter Carnival Royal Court.

The hobby horse race idea came from Dave Rockefeller. Russell hopes to have a “stable” of extras in case someone shows up without a horse.

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Illusionist

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Illusionist Leon Etienne will boggle minds in a recently announced magic show scheduled for Feb. 8 at the Harrietstown Town Hall. Doors open at 7:30 p.m.

Chrissie Wais has been in charge of booking Etienne.

Etienne, from Utica, said he’s been to Saranac Lake but never been to Winter Carnival before. He’s done private shows at local colleges and in Lake Placid but this will be his first public show in the area.

He’ll be bringing his medium-size show with a couple grand illusions he’s done on national stages like “America’s Got Talent,” “Penn and Teller: Fool Us” and “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.”

“The world needs magic now more than ever,” Etienne said.

His show is family friendly and he said he loves to perform both for kids who innately have a sense of wonder, as well as for adults who can forget that wonder.

“As we grow old we’re all jaded. We’ve got life’s issues to deal with,” he said.

It’s rewarding to snap people out of that cycle and “disrupt the matrix” with a big “How did he do that?” moment. For some, it is a puzzle to solve. For others, they suspend their disbelief and live in it.

Etienne’s journey through the magical realm has been marked with suffering.

He was 12 years old, grounded and bored out of his mind when he first picked up a magic book his grandparents got him. After serving out his sentence in his bedroom, he did a trick for his mom, blew her mind and was instantly hooked.

“Here’s this grown woman who has told me what to do my whole life … and all of a sudden, she didn’t have any answers,” he said.

But it wasn’t until he was 16 when he really got invested in magic. He had broken his finger and was stuck in a cast that went all the way up his arm.

“For six weeks I couldn’t do magic. At that point I realized how much I actually do it and how much I missed it,” Etienne said.

So his dad called the first magician he found in the phone book, who told him about the magic club of Utica. His first show was a high school community service project in front of his school to raise money for the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks shortly after they happened.

Etienne said he hopes to spark an interest in magic among kids and said he will have his own magic kits for sale at the show.

Admission is free, but organizers ask people bring a non-perishable food item as a donation.

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Slide show

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The slide show of photos official Carnival photographer Meachele Manchester takes throughout the 10-day event is moving dates and transforming. To give her more time to created a polished show, the picture presentation has been moved to after Carnival ends, on Thursday, Feb. 15 at 6:30 p.m. in Riverside Park. It’s also going to be a community celebration of the 2024 Winter Carnival.

This outdoor post-Carnival celebration and showing of the “Creepy Carnival” slide show is free and open to the public. Steve Erman, who is organizing the event with his wife Margot Gold, said there will also be free hot cocoa and soft pretzels served, and a playlist of creepy songs will score the show.

Erman said the First United Methodist Church of Saranac Lake waived its usual kitchen fee since it is a carnival event, and Gold is enlisting a “merry band of bakers” to help bake all the pretzels. He said she’s spent days perfecting her recipe.

“I’ve been eating pretzels for two weeks!” Erman exclaimed.

There will be an additional indoor showing of the slide show at the Saranac Village at Will Rogers on Thursday, Feb. 22 at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m.

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Icicle Jarts

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The Heat Keepers’ icicle contest is transforming this year, into an all-ages Icicle Jarts tournament on Feb. 3 in Riverside Park at noon.

“Rather than judging whose lost heat is creating the biggest, baddest icicle in the area, we will see who can toss ‘icicles’ the most accurately,” Heat Keepers Manager Justin Pallack wrote in a statement. “With the same rules as the dangerous, old time, banned lawn dart game, only with safer ‘jarts’ provided.

“Still feel free to bring your icicle to show off who’s got the largest around,” he added.

Pallack said the rules will be posted on the Heat Keepers Facebook page, all participants will get stickers and compete for promotional gear.

After numerous injuries and fatalities with the lawn darts in the 1980s, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration classified them as a “mechanical hazard” and banned their sale until the toy’s design was changed.

Pallack said he has “safer, modern lawn darts” with a new design.

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Tug-of-war

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There will be a new tug-of-war tournament on Feb. 4 in Riverside Park from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m.

The tug-of-war idea came from DJ Fowler and was developed by Russell and Eric Foster last year before Sam Baker took on its organization. Baker said he’s not a Tug of War guy himself.

“Oh, no. I have the upper-body strength of a child,” Baker said. “But I’m good at yelling really loud.”

Baker recently moved back to town and was looking to get involved with Carnival again, so he jumped on this event.

Teams can sign up early by registering with Baker at wcctugofwar@gmail.com and they’ll also need to sign a liability waiver at tinyurl.com/ycysx6ve to participate. Tuggers must be 18 years old or at least 16 with parents’ permission. Sign up is on a first come first serve basis. There will be a limit of eight teams of eight. Each team has a 1,600-pound weight limit.

“We’re going to use the honor system, but I’m pretty good at eyeballing,” Baker said.

He said he’s still looking for volunteers for the event, too.

“All you need to do is stand there and look at a rope,” Baker said.

Fobare trophy

The Louis Fobare Memorial Trophy for “Best in Show” in the Feb. 10 Gala Parade will be voted on by the public for the first time this year. Previously, this had been the job of the judges.

Parade attendees will be able to vote online during the parade by scanning a QR code which will be displayed in windows of businesses along the parade route.

“Voting will be open to all using the code for a one time single vote,” according to a press release. “Voting will continue throughout the parade and end shortly prior to the Battle of the Bands in the Harrietstown Town Hall. … If you loved the bands in the parade, come hear them play in the town hall for the Battle of the Bands at the conclusion of the parade.”

The trophy will be awarded following the Battle of the Bands.

The Louis Fobare award will also be a legacy award, with a name added to the award every year and the trophy displayed somewhere in town throughout the year. The winner will also receive a commemorative plaque marking their achievement.

Parade entries will be accepted until 2 p.m. on Feb. 9. The 2024 “Creepy Carnival” will be held Feb. 2-11.

Fireworks

The “Storming of the Ice Palace” fireworks show starting at 7 p.m. has also been moved from the final Sunday to the last Saturday, Feb. 10, after the Gala Parade, in order to avoid a scheduling conflict with the Superbowl. Russell said this will hopefully also allow more visitors to town to enjoy the fireworks, since many often left for home before Sunday night in the past.