The City of Newburgh held its third annual winter fest at Crystal Lake on Monday. The event was hosted by Scenic Hudson and its various community partners.

Festivities included snowshoeing, children’s crafts, strider bikes, fat bikes, photo-ops, guided treks, a community snowflake art installation, various treats, and a campfire.

“For Newburgh it’s about taking formerly neglected places and making them real places that people in the community can enjoy and learn from,” said Steve Rosenberg, Senior Vice President of Scenic Hudson, on winter fest. “With a place like Crystal Lake and Snake Hill, [community members can] find some solace and some respite from their day to day lives.”

“Every year this [event] is getting larger and larger,” said Assemblyman Jonathan Jacobson. “More is being done for Crystal Lake and the vicinity, and the woods, and so forth. It’s great to see all the children here.”

For Jacobson, the best part of winter fest is seeing the community participation.

Anthony Coneski, Event and Community Project Manager at Scenic Hudson, thinks the best part of winter fest is “seeing everybody come out, seeing everybody enjoying the outside.”

“Maybe [the best part of winterfest is everyone] seeing a place for the first time in their community that they didn’t know about,” said Coneski. Not only did city residents come out to this year’s winter fest. Residents of other areas of the Hudson Valley also attended.

Candyce Young and her 5-year-old son, D’lorenzo Thorpe, attended winter fest for the first time on Monday. The two are residents of Cornwall. Young heard about the event via Facebook.

“Well I’m off and my son’s out of school,” said Young. “We figured we’d do a local activity and see what it’s all about.” Young was excited about the hike and the children’s activities.

“Each year we have programming for young people in particular,” said Rosenberg. “So they can learn about the place and they can engage in art projects.”

Organizing winter fest can take several months. Scenic Hudson always aims to work with as many community partners as possible for the event. Although it’s possible for the event to change locations in the future, it hopes to remain at Crystal Lake.

Councilman Anthony Grice loves Crystal Lake and its history. “I really want the whole City of Newburgh to really know about this area, to highlight this area,” said Grice.

“We really want to continue to build on what’s been happening at Crystal Lake,” said Rosenberg. “To make it more safe, make it more publicly accessible, make it more fun.”