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St. Paul's Winter Carnival - the party for the very hardy - begins

Expect King Boreas and all the regular shenanigans, but also look for some new activities such as a blues festival.

By Anthony Lonetree

January 22, 2009 at 6:09AM

Lisa Veith, of St. Paul, glided on a sheet of ice Wednesday near the Landmark Center. The St. Paul Winter Carnival — the nation’s oldest and largest winter festival — starts today and runs through Feb. 1. (Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

For 11 days beginning Thursday, the legend of the St. Paul Winter Carnival will play out, a celebration of all things cool and icy, overseen by King Boreas and his royal family.

For the king and his court, the fun ends next week, however, when they are overthrown by Vulcanus Rex and his Krewe, signaling that spring is ahead. And there, in the middle of it all, will be Chris Danielson, the 2009 Prince of the South Wind, and a former Vulcan, to boot.

To quote this year's carnival button: Whose side is he on?

"The winning side," Danielson said Wednesday.

Tonight, he and his fellow princes will be at St. Paul RiverCentre when the new Boreas Rex and Queen of the Snows are crowned. The event helps mark the opening of an annual celebration that this year will include a blues festival and pee wee hockey tournament, in addition to such mainstays as weekend parades and ice carving and snow sculpting contests.

Danielson, 39, of Little Canada, owns and operates a corporate insurance agency in Roseville and is a volunteer emergency medical technician with the American Red Cross. He had to think hard, he said, about joining forces with King Boreas this year, not because of Vulcan loyalties, but because it would mean time away from his mother, Anita Danielson, who is battling cancer.

Because members of the royal family can attend 300 to 400 events a year, he said, he wanted her blessing. After she gave it, Danielson said he decided to dedicate the upcoming year to her.

"She's giving the good fight," he said.

Little mystery

Saturday afternoon will see the first of two downtown parades, the Grande Day Parade, which finds King Boreas in full command of his winter playground. Throughout the carnival, however, Vulcanus Rex and his seven-member Krewe are nearby, ready to engage in a friendly confrontation.

In 2000, Danielson was the Vulcans' Duke of Klinker, a klinker being the ember that people blow on to rekindle their fires, he said. Unlike members of the royal family, who will meet for several months to discuss upcoming carnival activities, he said Vulcans get their costumes on a Friday night, put them on Saturday morning and "just go."

"It's on-the-job training," Danielson said.

This year, the Vulcan Krewe is planning a final assault on King Boreas near the steps of the downtown Central Library after the Jan. 31 Torchlight parade.

If tradition holds, the Vulcans will make one charge, and be turned back, and then another, at which time they will gain a new member: Notos, the Prince of the South Wind, who is described in carnival lore as "balmy and unstable." That means Danielson will return to his Vulcan roots.

Provided, of course, that the Vulcans prevail. But then, they're on a 122-year winning streak.

Anthony Lonetree • 651-298-1545

about the writer

Anthony Lonetree

Reporter

Anthony Lonetree has been covering St. Paul Public Schools and general K-12 issues for the Star Tribune since 2012-13. He began work in the paper's St. Paul bureau in 1987 and was the City Hall reporter for five years before moving to various education, public safety and suburban beats.