The span from January to May can feel like a brutal slog. In Emery County to break up this monotony each year, citizens gather together for the Beat the Winter Blues Festival. This year’s rendition will be held on Friday, Jan. 24, and Saturday, Jan. 25 in the Emery County Rec Center. Patsy Stoddard from the Emery County Business Chamber joined Castle Country Radio to discuss the event and what attendees can expect.

The festival will feature several events for kids and adults alike during the two-day span. For the children, this includes free skating at the Rec Center, a kid’s corner and free Wagon rides courtesy of Lee Jeffs.

For the adults, there will be cornhole, bingo, and left, right center over the two-day event with over $200 in prizes being given away. “ We’re giving away Emery County Chamber Bucks, and those can be spent at any Emery County business that’s listed on the buck,” explained Stoddard.

She then explained how this event found its footing as a community staple,” this is probably the ninth year that the festival has been going, and it’s just something to do in the winter, something to get people out and get them together after the holidays. Things tend to get a little bit stale and boring, and so we kind of invented this event a few years back, Amanda Leonard, and when she was with the business chamber, then she helped instigate it.”

Stoddard added,” It’s some incentive to get out and for our vendors, it provides a venue to be able to show their products and then just have a little bit of entertainment and a little bit of fun. Just get together with your friends and neighbors and come out and eat and buy snacks and just look at the items that they make. So it’s just kind of a community event just to get you out of the house.”

In closing, Stoddard shared, “Come out to the Beat the Winter Blues Festival. We have a lot of good entertainment, a lot of fun activities, and there’s going to be a wide variety of vendors there, and the Gettin’ our Smoke on Food truck’s going to be there. So just come out and say hi, and enjoy the weekend with us.”

The Emery County Beat the Winter Blues Festival will be held on Friday, Jan. 24, and Saturday, Jan. 25 in the Emery County Recreation Center located at 75 South, 400 East in Castle Dale.