A long-running festival that meant a great deal to the Empire-area community returns tomorrow after a six-year hiatus.

After taking place in one form or another from the 1970s through 2018, Empire Winterfest returns Saturday with a variety of events taking place throughout the village from morning until after dark.

“I’m just so excited to have it back, and there’s a lot of buzz in the community about it,” Gerry Shiffman tells The Ticker. “It’s really great.”

Shiffman is president of the Empire Area Community Center (EACC), which is responsible for resurrecting the popular festival. After he suggested bringing it back last fall, local resident and fellow EACC board member Mae Stier chaired the planning committee, which gathered community support and lined up hosts and activities.

“The most important part about this whole thing is just bringing the community together around an opportunity for joy,” Stier tells The Ticker. “(And while) our first focus is thinking about our local community and ways that we can come together, at the same time we want to welcome other people to come and enjoy winter in Empire.”

The event began in the early 1970s with its now-famous polar plunge, Shiffman says. A hole is cut in South Bar Lake for this purpose, though on years when that lake doesn’t ice over, participants take the plunge into Lake Michigan’s frigid waters.

The original organizers – a group that included brothers Phil and Mike Deering, Mike Vandenburg, Vicki Finstad, Dick Owens and others, Shiffman says – handed the festival off to the EACC in 2012. Increasing expenses and lack of enough people committing to the festival’s planning and execution led to a pause after 2018, then COVID came along and threatened to be the final nail in the coffin.

But it’s back, and people throughout the village couldn’t be happier. Ella Skrocki is an owner of Sleeping Bear Surf & Kayak, one of the village’s landmark businesses. From both a business and a personal perspective, she can’t wait for Saturday.

“I’m very thrilled to be getting some energy into this little teeny, tiny town in the wintertime,” she tells The Ticker. “For us businesses that are here holding it down…it’s really great to have people out here to bring in a little income, but even more so to be able to connect people with this area in the wintertime. As a business owner, my favorite part of the job is getting people to fall in love with this area and what it has to offer.”

Skrocki, who grew up in the shop, is always excited to show people that Empire shines just as brightly (even brighter, some might argue) in the winter as it does in the summer.

“The lakeshore completely and entirely changes energy, and it’s just as beautiful now as it is in the thick of summer, but you get it all to yourself,” she says.

Empire’s winter identity has been making the rounds on social media in the past few years as various groups of people – particularly women – have taken to regularly swimming in Lake Michigan during the coldest months of the year.

“It feels like a fun year to bring back Winterfest just because we've had some added winter excitement in Empire lately,” Stier says.

The schedule is below. All events are on Saturday, February 22, and all activities are free to attend.

9am: Yoga at the Township Hall
Noon-5pm: Book sale at the Library
Noon-3pm: Saunas at Empire Beach
1pm: Polar Plunge in South Bar Lake
2-5pm: Winter activities at Joe’s Friendly Tavern & Sleeping Bear Surf
2-4pm: Coffee hour at Tiffany’s Cafe
4pm: Children’s winter story hour at the library
5-7pm: Soup potluck & music from Chris Skellenger & Paul Koss.
7-9pm: Drink specials at The Village Inn