World of Winter
By Naperville Magazine
Appears in the January 2025 issue.
By Jeff Banowetz
Grand Rapids is home to the country’s largest winter festival, a two-month-long event that offers plenty of reasons to brave the elements
A Midwestern winter is all about attitude. Does the cold and snow keep you cocooned inside, or is it an opportunity to enjoy hot chocolate, ice skating, and bonfires?
Grand Rapids, Michigan, about 200 miles from Naperville, chose to go the glass-half-full route, creating its World of Winter festival (worldofwintergr.com) five years ago. The outdoor celebration transforms the city’s downtown into a series of art installations, beer gardens, winter sports, and dance parties, and it’s now considered the biggest winter festival in the country. “It’s become a two-month celebration that transforms downtown Grand Rapids into an outdoor art gallery and winter wonderland,” says Bill Kirk, communications director for Downtown Grand Rapids, Inc., which organizes the festival. “It features over 100 events, outdoor art installations, activities, window displays, ice sculptures, and much more.”
The free festival, which this year runs from Jan. 10 to March 2, attracts artists from around the world to create pieces for public display. “These are large-scale installations that involve light and sound,” Kirk says. “They’re interactive for attendees to come and really kind of play with them. This year, we’ve got some incredible stuff coming in that I think is going to make for a wonderful experience.”
The pieces are showcased in several downtown parks, all easily accessible along the Grand River. “Downtown Grand Rapids is very walkable,” Kirk says. “And the good thing about it being a two-month festival is if you don’t want to bite it off in one day, you can come back and see it later. But you can get to every installation within about a 15-minute walk.”
This year’s festival includes nine major installations (and about 30 in total), with some coming from artists in Australia, France, and Thailand. One of this year’s displays, created by Michigan artist Two Eagles Marcus, features a structure made of LED pixel tubes. In “attraction mode,” the piece features cycles of color and sound, triggered by guests. Every 15 minutes, the display turns to “performance mode” with a two- to three-minute programmed show of light and sound animation.
The Hive, created by Australian artist Beamhacker, is another lighted installation, this one featuring a towering honeycomb structure of high-density LEDs that change color and offer a performance synced to a 10-minute composition by Perth electronic musician Mike Midnight. “You’ll find a lot of these installations come to life at night, that’s what they’re designed for,” Kirk says.
The art installations are just a part of the festival’s attractions, which launch Jan. 10 with a debut drone show in the skies over Grand Rapids. “This is a first for us, and we’re excited about it,” Kirk says. “The drones are lit in different colors to create art in the sky. It’s a cool, interactive way to kick off the festival.”
Over the two months, other events include DJs, a silent disco (in which participants wear headphones to hear the music), a fashion show, a noodle tasting, ice-carving competitions, and food trucks. The open-air Rose Park Circle ice rink will be home to a number of events, including Fire and Ice, which features figure skating performances alongside fire art. “That’s usually one of the highlights of the festival,” Kirk says.
The Rose Park Circle is also home to a Hungry Hungry Hippos competition—think of the popular table game, but in human scale (and on ice)—and Paint in the Park, where people are invited to get creative on the ice. You also can enjoy ice skating yourself, with rentals available at the park. “We try to keep everything family-friendly, but we do try to appeal to all kinds of people,” Kirk says. “You should be able to find an event that appeals to you.”
Take the Grand Tour
• GRAND RAPIDS ARTS MUSEUM: You’ll find more than 6,000 works of art ranging from pre-history to the 20th century. Check out the temporary exhibit running through April 25: “Brick by Brick, The Creative Art of Lego.” artmuseumgr.org
• GRAND RAPIDS CHILDREN’S MUSEUM: Bring the kids inside for some interactive fun. Children will enjoy the playhouses, train tables, and famous Volkswagen Beetle in addition to touring displays. grcm.org
• CANNONSBURG SKI AREA: Located just 15 minutes from downtown Grand Rapids, Cannonsburg offers downhill skiing and snowboarding, terrain parks, and the largest snow tubing park in Michigan. The tubing hill is serviced by a magic carpet lift to take riders back to the top. cannonsburg.com
• BEER CITY ALE TRAIL: Thanks to its 40 craft breweries, Grand Rapids has dubbed itself Beer City USA. Sample some local favorites while in town with help from the Ale Trail, which will help you navigate all the offerings. experiencegr.com
• DEVOS PERFORMANCE HALL: This spectacular 2,543-seat performance arts space is home to the Grand Rapids Symphony, the Grand Rapids Ballet, Opera Grand Rapids, as well as touring theater productions and concerts. The national tour of the musical Moulin Rouge will be performing Jan. 21 to Feb. 2. devosperformancehall.com
Photos: Downtown Grand Rapids
