AUBURN – Some new cold-weather games and events will let organizers expand this year’s Auburn Winter Festival to two weekends.

“One thing about the Winter Festival is that there is always room for crazy events,” organizer Tracey Steuber said.

The festival is scheduled for Jan. 30 through Feb. 1, and from Feb. 5 through 8 at places around Auburn. They include Lost Valley Ski Area, New Auburn’s Walton Field, the Ingersoll Ice Arena and the Hilton Garden Inn. Some events will be scheduled for Mt. Apatite Park and the Thorncrag Bird Sanctuary in Lewiston.

This year’s list of activities includes the Primitive Biathlon, a snowshoe and muzzleloader race for black powder aficionados, as well as downhill rides at Lost Valley Ski Area in rubber rafts. They’ll join the traditional events of downhill canoe rides, shovel races and the “Really Ridiculous Relay.”

“We’ve brought some new people onto the organizing committee and that means new ideas for events,” Steuber said. “We’ve come up with more and more new activities, so we extended the event two weekends.”

Most events take place at Lost Valley, with special prices on lift tickets and equipment rentals, live music and ski races. A freestyle skiing big air competition is scheduled for 5 p.m. Jan. 30. The Edward Little High School Senior Class will be hosting river raft rides down the slopes of Lost Valley for $2 each daily throughout the event.

The festival’s signature races are scheduled for the second weekend. The Ridiculous Relay, featuring dogsled sprints, uphill snowshoe climbs and downhill canoe runs, are scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. Feb. 7. Shovel races are scheduled at 2 p.m. that day and the downhill mountain bike race is set for 9 a.m. Feb. 8.

Walton Field in New Auburn will be the site for outdoor ice skating, a bonfire and pond hockey tournament for Feb. 1, and skating and a snow playground Feb. 5-8.

Ingersoll Arena will be hosting public skating, $5 for adults and $4 for students and senior citizens throughout the week.

The Primitive Biathlon is being sponsored by the Androscoggin County Fish and Game Club and will be held at the group’s Perkins Ridge Road range. Competitors, encouraged to dress in costume, will race through a course on snowshoes, stopping at four target stages to shoot their single-barrel muzzleloaders. The last target stage will be in an open spectator area off Perkins Ridge Road.

For a full schedule, go to the city’s Web site at www.auburnmaine.org.