Winter’s Dream put on pause; ‘we’ll deliver a first-class event in 2025’

By Cathy DeDe, Chronicle Managing Editor

Winter’s Dream at Fort William Henry has been cancelled for this winter, with plans to return for next winter’s season, beginning in November 2025.

“As in baseball, this is only a rain delay,” the Warren County Coalition, which sponsored the attraction created by Moment Factory in Montreal, wrote to the Warren County Board of Supervisors.

“When we retake the field in 2025, it will be to deliver the first-class event that the Coalition envisioned.”

“Our intention then — and now — is to build Winter’s Dream into a signature event that draws visitors every year and becomes synonymous with Lake George.

“We will use the extra time to make the return of Winter’s Dream all that it should be.

“While the Coalition does this work, we will be returning the $400,000 the Board recently appropriated for Winter’s Dream to the county Occupancy Tax Fund balance where it belongs, and where it can be used to support other important tourism initiatives.

“We thank the Board of Supervisors for their vision and all they do to support year-round tourism in the Lake George region.”

Sam Luciano, president of Fort William Henry and spokesman for the Warren County Coalition tells The Chronicle, “We wanted to really be good stewards of the county money.”

“This group of people worked feverishly to try to make all the right decisions, heartbreaking. We did the right thing. It’s hard. A lot of us want to make it happen.”

Last year, the Coalition received $3 million in Warren County Occupancy Tax funds to seed the first season of Winter’s Dream.

With far lower attendance than anticipated, their promise to return the $3 million in installments from profits over each of the planned five years of the attraction was not realized. The Coalition returned about $50,000 of Occupancy Tax funds it did not utilize.

They were promised another $400,000 in County Oc Tax funds this year to promote and improve the attraction.

Mr. Luciano says, “We’ll go back and apply next year.”

“We have to take a pause to give us time to promote and build especially the new features we were adding, and let other things grow in the community — then come back after it, hard, next year.”

Mr. Luciano notes that Lake George Village aims to bring Albany’s dormant Capital Holiday Lights attraction to its Festival Commons this winter.

The Coalition, per their contract with Moment Factory, will have “nothing official” to do with that attraction, Mr. Luciano said — though he expects Coalition members and their businesses will be supportive on their own.

For next winter, Moment Factory and the Coalition plan new displays inside the fort, enhanced exterior lighting to promote the attraction, and new features such as an ice bar, Mr. Luciano said.

“All that’s in play for next year, and in the planning process,” Mr. Luciano says.

“It gives us more time to get the new show improvements together and to market, another look at the weather patterns, and for other things to develop around us, because Winter’s Dream itself is not a stand-alone draw to the area.”

He said, “Moment Factory have been true partners. They gave basically everything we’ve asked them to allow us to do, even in payment schedules.”

“I can’t foresee it not happening next year,” Mr. Luciano said. “We have addressed the weather challenges (and the) marketing challenges.”

Meanwhile, he said, Fort William Henry Museum will remain open into the winter, offering ghost tours and possibly more, Mr. Luciano said.

Adirondack Nationals car show new 4-year Lake George pact

The Adirondack Nationals Car Show has signed a new four-year contract to continue bringing the September event to the Fort William Henry and Lake George, Fort William Henry President Sam Luciano told The Chronicle.

He said it keeps the car show’s cost steady, but adds an extra day, “for all the restaurants, the hotels, to capitalize on.”

Mr. Luciano credits a Warren County Coalition meeting in July at the Queensbury Hotel that brought together presenters and businesses.

“Out of that,” Mr. Luciano says, came the new car show contract. “That’s the Coalition, the business community coming together and solving problems,” he said. — Cathy DeDe

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