MADISON, Wis. — On January 12, 13 and 14, 2006, the bustling blocks of Capitol Square will heat up with a duo of winter-time festivities unlike anything that Nordic skiing has witnessed before in North America.
2007 Capitol Square Sprints, America’s largest Federation of International Skiing (FIS) city sprint race, is teaming with Kessler’s Diamonds Polar Jam, a music and entertainment event. So, while recreational skiers and many of the premier cross-country skiers in North America are racing around the Wisconsin Capitol in downtown Madison, their friends, families, and other festival participants can head over to Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. to listen to both regional and national music acts and stroll through a wintertime food court offering original flavors from some of Madison’s favorite restaurants.
2007 Capitol Square Sprints, a returning event that will attract with Kessler’s Diamonds Polar Jam over 20,000 people to downtown Madison to participate and whiteness the most unique winter festival.
Capitol Square Sprints provides the opportunity for first-timer skiers to elite athletes, the disabled and the disadvantage to participate in cross country skiing, snowboarding and snow shoeing.
Kesslers Diamonds’ Polar Jam is being produced by Madison Festivals, Inc., the non-profit entity behind some of Dane County’s most popular and successful community events like Taste of Madison and Madison Marathon.
In addition to the FIS SuperTour events, the Capitol Square Sprints serves as a qualifier for the Midwest Junior Olympic team and as the Wisconsin High School Relay and Sprint Championships. Other Sprints events include a winter/outdoor sports expo, ice sculptures, a community open ski with equipment rentals, Disabled Ski and Paralympics Program, Corporate Challenge Snowshoe Relay, Special Olympics Wisconsin Program, Fit City Kids, Rail Jam for snowboarders and skiers alone with open riding/skiing and award ceremonies.
“We're looking forward to this year's US100 on Madison's Capitol Square. This annual event showcases both the world's fastest snow and the world's fastest skiers, and over the past several season has yielded a number of world records. Madison was selected as this year's organizer, giving us a venue where the top sprinters gather together annually for the SuperTour competitions, and we're certain that Madison's renowned festive venue will add unique excitement to the event this year” commented Luke Bodensteiner, U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association Nordic Director
More than 100,000 cubic feet snow will be trucked into the area around the capitol to create the 1-kilometer loop course with machine-set tracks. Hammersley Stone dump trucks will deliver the snow made at Alliant Energy Center.
Madison Festivals Inc. brainstormed with Capitol Square Sprints producer Yuriy Gusev and his staff and decided that Capitol Square Sprints, despite its wintertime spectacle and athletic displays, was missing mainstream entertainment value that could attract thousands of additional people to the event. Thus the concept of Polar Jam was born.
Now come January, Madison will truly be the center of the winter universe by staging a winter festival combo around Capitol Square on January 12, 13 and 14 that involves the whole community. More details about Kesslers Diamonds’ Polar Jam and Capitol Square Sprints to come as production plans are finalized.
For more information on Capitol Square Sprints, contact Yuriy Gusev, event director, at (608) 385-8864 or [email protected]. For more information on Kessler’s Diamonds Polar Jam, contact Keith Peterson, event producer, at (608) 276-9797 x 23 or [email protected].
For more about Capitol Square Sprints, visit www.capitolsquaresprints.org or www.capsprints.com.