Winter Blast merges with Royal Oak Holidays

ROYAL OAK — After 20-years, the annual Winter Blast festival will merge with the Royal Oak Holidays to create a winter wonderland for multiple weekends. 

The merged holiday experience will span five consecutive weekends kicking off at 4 p.m. Nov. 21 through Dec. 21. The event will be free to attend.

“The new format is a better investment for our city, creating more of ‘a blast’ over a longer period at a time when weather is more predictable and people are already out celebrating,” Royal Oak Mayor Michael Fournier said in a prepared statement. “We’re proud to offer an expanded, festive experience that both residents and visitors can enjoy.”

A press release sent out by Royal Oak Holidays said that the event will include all the activities that people enjoyed at the Winter Blast, such as zip lines, carnival attractions and ice sculptures, which will all be free of cost. 

Royal Oak Holidays is in its second year, according to the release, and will feature five themed weekends each with special attractions, and like the Winter Blast, Royal Oak Holidays will feature one weekend of free skating at the Rink at Royal Oak scheduled for Dec. 12-14. 

“We saw a great opportunity to take the major programming elements of Winter Blast and extend the fun over five weekends and to do so when more people are out and about during the holiday season,” Events Producer Jon Witz said via email. “In addition, we also will have more predictable weather in the five weekends between Thanksgiving and the Christmas holiday, whereas in early February, we’ve dealt with conditions that have forced the event to reschedule twice in the last four years.”

Witz said the merger will benefit the event in several ways — by providing more funding, flexibility and support for participating small businesses and vendors. 

“It will benefit the holidays on several fronts, first on the funding support as many sponsors of Winter Blast (were) excited to support the Holidays. Second, with that financial support we’ve augmented the programming of each weekend of the holidays,” Witz said. “As an example, we’ll have two full weekends of a holiday market with sixteen unique vendors that far surpasses what we did last year. Another example is that we’ll offer ice skating on one of the weekends for free, which will have a huge impact on those small business gift vendors as well as on other local businesses.”

The Royal Oak Holidays will kick off on Nov. 21 with the Lightning of the Park and season opening of the Rink at Royal Oak. The celebration will include live music, food trucks, carnival rides, marshmallow roasting, skating exhibitions, Santa, and a community countdown to the lighting of Royal Oak’s downtown trees and the giant oak tree in Centennial Commons. 

The following weekends will include new attractions like a giant game of Hungry Hippos, a Winter Classic Cornhole Tournament and a Grinch Weekend. 

There is also going to be an expanded outdoor holiday market featuring more than 15 local gift exhibitors, including several downtown Royal Oak businesses. 

“We’re taking everything people loved about Winter Blast and supercharging it for one amazing holiday season,” said Witz. “By merging its favorites features into Royal Oak Holidays and extending the event over multiple weekends, we’re creating a bigger, more accessible celebration that delivers more value, more festive fun and more time for families to enjoy it all.”

For more information on the Royal Oak Holidays, visit royaloakholidays.com.