Like all of Mill Valley’s landmark events, Winterfest, the 94941’s annual holiday celebration, looked a little bit different in 2020. But much like our friends at the Mill Valley Film Festival, Marin Theatre Company, MV Memorial Day Parade and, well, every business and nonprofit organization in town, the COVID-19 crisis has made this “the year of the pivot.”
We held a largely virtual event event in 2020. Now we’re back to a spectacular, in-person Winterfest – but with a laser focus on the health and safety all attendees. We’re asking everyone to #MaskUp and maintain responsible social distance throughout the event. We’re reducing the number of booths on the Downtown Plaza and asking patrons to support our local restaurant and retail shops for their food and drink needs. We’ve got a fantastic lineup of singers, dancers and musicians to perform throughout the day, and we’ll have a bunch of great children’s games and activities like cornhole, “snow ball” toss and a giant Connect4 game. The giant rainbow slide will be the dominant feature on the Plaza to thrill the kiddos. We’ll conclude with some carols and a Tree-Lighting ceremony!!
We’re also keeping a few holdovers from our virtual 2020 Winterfest: the Winterfest Holiday Hunt, a three-week, scavenger hunt-style contest at more than 30 businesses throughout Mill Valley. We’ll also be re-screening Marin filmmaker Norm Hunter’s Winterfest film highlighting the spirit of this landmark event, featuring local arts organizations, business owners all over town and, of course, appearances by Santa Claus at locations around town.
The 2021 edition of Winterfest, produced by Steve Bajor’s TeamPro Event, kicks off Friday, Nov. 26 with the Winterfest Holiday Hunt, a three-week, scavenger hunt-style contest at more than 30 businesses throughout Mill Valley. The contest centers around Iridescent Stars, which business owners place in storefront windows or inside their businesses. Kids accompanied by a parent will take photos of the stars, as selfies in front of the stars they choose at some amazing local restaurants, retail shops, salons and more. The Holiday Hunt runs through Dec. 17. Holiday Hunters who email at least eight of their photos as attachments to info@millvalley.org are entered into a raffle for one of 18 $20 gift cards to participating businesses (one gift card per raffle winner), with the contenstant who takes and submits the most star photos winning a $40 gift card. We’ll be posting a series of clues about participating businesses for Holiday Hunters on the EMV Blog on Nov. 26.
We’ll also be replaying the Winterfest film on the EMV Blog via YouTube throughout the holiday season!