AUBURN – Hundreds came out to play on the ice and snow during the city’s annual Winter Festival on Saturday.

At the Walton School field, Tricia Tomlinson of Lewiston – wearing ski pants and with rosy cheeks – played with her daughter, Corra Tomlinson, 5, in a snow playground.

“It’s a blast,” Tomlinson said. “We had a great time.” She liked how the playground was built. It had crawl spaces for the kids, a manmade sledding hill, tunnels, a slide and a fort.

Using backhoes and dump trucks, the playground was built by Gary O’Connell and other Auburn Public Works staffers. They used heavy plastic culverts to make tunnels, a slide and the fort.

From the top of the sliding hill, there was a view of skaters playing pond hockey. A group of men had just finished playing.

“We’re 3-0 so far,” bragged Shawn Morrissett of Auburn.

In pond hockey there are no positions, explained teammate Craig Poulin. “We just rotate around wherever we’re needed, playing up and down the ice.” Unlike normal hockey, pond hockey is more of a free-for-all with no goaltender. “Everybody’s circulating around. Whatever happens, happens,” said Craig’s father, John Poulin.

The name of their team was “Couturier,” after teammate Andre Couturier, who said he came from a big hockey family. “This takes you back to your roots.”

Tammy and Scott Rodrigue of Auburn were there with their sons, Reece and Kegan. The boys play hockey, as does their father.

This year was the first time the festival included pond hockey. Scott Rodrigue thought it was a good idea. When he was a boy he played at an outdoor rink at Walton. “We always came up here, shoveled and played. We didn’t have any equipment. Just skates and sticks.”

Over at Lost Valley Ski Area, kids of all ages paid $2 to ride down a hill in a white-water raft. The snow rafting was an Edward Little High School senior class fundraiser.

“We’ve got a lot of people,” said senior Emily Dodge.

“The kids are having a lot of fun,” agreed senior Muriel Schwinn.

By 3 p.m. they had provided 100 rides. That number included a lot of repeats.

The festival continues today, picks up again on Thursday and goes through Saturday, Feb. 7. The Couturier pond hockey team members said they would be back Sunday, shooting for 4-0.