George Little park won't be packed with winter cheer this weekend as planned.
Nor will the Kermodei Parade of Lights brighten weekend festivities.
The third annual Skeena Winter Festival has been cancelled this Saturday and Sunday due to a lack of support, as has the parade.
The festival would have been in its third year, and was planned as a two-day event in George Little Park. It was to host a variety of food and craft vendors, chainsaw carvings, a bonfire and live music from local choirs and bands.
Chair for the festival Debbie Letawski said the cancellation is due to a lack of volunteers, vendors and general community support.
“To cancel it now is very disappointing,” Letawski said, adding the decision came from the organization committee who will still consider the festival for next year.
Volunteers were also challenged when strong winds last Monday blew down and damaged the eight wooden booths they had set up for the weekend.
Letawski said the volunteer committee in charge of the festival has been meeting once a week for the past few months to prepare for the festival, and that it was a hard but necessary choice to forego this year's events.
She hopes to direct people instead to the winter art fair on the same day from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Terrace arena banquet room, where Letawski hopes to divert some of the Skeena Winter Festival attractions, such as the auction of wreaths, a chainsaw carved nativity scene and carolers.
The winter art festival will also host art workshops, demonstrations, craft constructions, door prizes and a bake sale. Admission will be by donation to the Terrace Churches Food Bank.
This weekend's Kermodei Parade of Lights has also been cancelled.
"We regret that we have had to cancel the parade at this time, due to various circumstances," wrote, in a press release, Chamber of Commerce executive director Carol Fielding who's been organizing the parade.
Circumstances include a lack of floats, difficulting securing adequate numbers of volunteers to man road closures and also the cancellation of the Skeena Winter Festival where the parade planned to end, said Fielding.
The past few years have garnered low participation for the event, she continued, and participation is key to hosting the parade.
"The task of road closures and putting infrastructure in place is a lot of hard work and is governed by the success of parade entries," she said. "I want to thank the parade participants and volunteers that did step up."
Fielding said she hopes aspects of the Winter Festival and the Parade of Lights can happen in the new year.