AUBURN – There’s something to be said for staging a winter carnival on a warm, sunny weekend.

“Unbelievable” came to Pete Bushway’s mind. “I can’t complain.”

Neither could hundreds – possibly thousands – of local people who enjoyed some or all of Auburn’s 5th annual Winter Festival.

It was a far cry from last year’s event. Bushway, the city’s parks and rec director, remembers a frigid weekend then with wind chills dropping well below zero.

Keeping the Shrek ice carvings at the community college venue from melting was a welcome problem by comparison.

“We have Shrek on a snowboard,” added Diane Moreau from the Lost Valley venue. Looking spiffy with ski goggles, the Shrek there was under cover, sheltered from the sun, Moreau said.

By late Sunday, she and Bushway were watching the festival melt to some happy memories. A parade of snowmobiles down the slope at Lost Valley was to wrap things up shortly after sunset.

But deeply discounted ticket prices and a host of activities brought scores of people to the ski area, Moreau said.

“It’s been fun,” she said. She also noted the cheap tickets led more than a few folks to dig deep into hidden cellar corners to “dig out the retro stuff” for a couple of runs.

Kiddie sledding and horse-drawn sleigh rides also proved popular over the weekend there, she said.

At the college, Bushway said free cross-country ski and snowshoe lessons kept volunteer instructors busy all weekend.

And kids were having a blast enjoying a winter playground on the college grounds then warming up indoors with some indoor fun like a moonwalk enclosure.

Next year, Bushway hopes to make the event even bigger, and better. He’s eyeing the possibility of creating an ice palace or house, something that will draw people from beyond the Twin Cities.