No more mushing in Marmora SnoFest

By Vanessa Stark

BELLEVILLE – Marmora SnoFest will no longer be holding sled dog races.

Organizer say weather conditions have become unpredictable, making races too much work with no pay-offs.

Tom Mcfarlane, chair of the Marmora SnoFest committee, told QNet News in a phone interview on Wednesday morning, “There is a lot of factors that went into our decision. In the last 10 years we have only been able to run our actual dogsled races four times, due to mainly climate change. We just don’t get the snow falls that we used to get.”

SnoFest was founded on the traditions of sled dog racing in 1979 as the first long distance race in Canada, according to its website.

Now that the local races have been cut from the festivities, Ontario only has two sled dog races that still run. One in Kearny and the other in Haliburton.

Map by Vanessa Stark, QNet News. 

With limited options for races, Marmora has always been a main attraction for people from all over the world.

Shane Cox, vice president of the Ontario Federation of Sleddog Sport, said people have come from as far as Germany, parts of the United States, and all over Canada to take part in the races.

Jenn Benett, tourism and economic development coordinator for Marmora and Lake said, “I think in the winter for SnoFest specifically the tourism numbers will decline. But I think the local population will show up more.” She said, “I think locals love the races but are also kind of spoiled by them so they can pick and choose what years they come out. I think now that there’s more events that are catered to families and entertainment that there are more reasons for them to come out than just watching a start or finish.”

Marmora isn’t the first to discontinue races from winter festivities. Other communities around the area, like Bandcroft or Apsley, have had sled dog races in the past that are no longer running.

“It would just be nice to see it back around here just so its not a forgotten sport,” Cox said.

With years of tradition behind the event in Marmora and the sport itself, McFarlane said, “It’s just a Canadian heritage right, that’s the cool thing about it. I mean in the Northern part of our country and the U.S. as well it’s still a major mode of transportation for those people and it’s just a really unique cool thing to experience and see.”

Marmora SnoFest isn’t completely abandoning the tradition however. They will have a musher from Ottawa and his team of dogs to give free rides around the fairgrounds.

“What we can do is going to be a short loop trail around the fair grounds and we’re able to do that,” Mcfarlane said about the new addition to the event, “Especially with our volunteer base now because once again with the poor snow conditions over the years, a lot of people put a lot of work into it and a lot of people have just given up on it because you just feel like you fall short of your efforts every year because of the snow conditions.”

Whether or not the races make a comeback at Snofest in future years depends on the community’s support, according to Mcfarlane.

“I mean there is still definitely an interest for it. However it does take a lot of volunteers and a lot of effort to do this and with having to have all those people year after year to put all that effort into it, just to have the races not run, people just lose their interest in it. It would depend on the interest in the community and who would want to step up and help.”