City of Alexandria announces plans for AlexWinterFete 2022

ALEXANDRIA, La. (KALB) - In just a few short months, downtown Alexandria will be flooded with people for AlexWinterFete 2022.

City officials are promising more in the way of food, vendors and fun.

The ice-skating rink will again be the main attraction, but festivalgoers can also look forward to stilt walkers, bands that cross many genres of music and of course Santa Claus.

The last two AlexWinterFete festivals were limited because of COVID-19 restrictions, but Mayor Jeff Hall shared that the festival is back up and running this year and there are no limitations.

”Remember we are coming out of the pandemic,” said Mayor Hall. “At that time, we had to improvise, because we could not do things like we traditionally did it. We made some changes there in 2020 and in 2021. We were there, but we were not quite open - so this time it looks like we will be more open, and we will be able to do more things.”

Alexandria’s Interim Director of Community Services Marvinette Holly said AlexWinterFete has a major impact on Central Louisiana, adding that the financial and community influence that the festival brings make all the planning and long days leading up to the event worth it.

”Economically it impacts our community by sales tax and individuals coming and staying in our hotels, spending money in the businesses and with the vendors it gives our citizens the feeling of a good quality of life and it starts off the holiday season,” said Holly.

AlexWinterFete kicks off Thurs., Dec. 8 with the lighting of the Christmas tree and will run until Sun., Dec. 11, culminating with the Alexandria Christmas Parade.

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