American Graffiti Sixties Car and Concert Festival in London, Ontario, Canada

Rev up your engines and head for the Sixties in London — the one in Ontario, Canada, not the one in England.  The Seventh Annual Fleetwood Country Cruize on June 4th and 5th celebrates the iconic coming-of-age 1973 film “American Graffiti”.  Be whisked back decades at a recreation of Mel’s Diner with Candy Clark, Bo Hopkins, Cindy Williams, Lynne Stewart, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith,  Be whisked back decades in time at a 40- foot drive-in movie screen that will be showing what else but the American Graffiti film.  There’s also a kick-off dance under the big top and a rock ‘n’ roll concert featuring Sixties stars Lou Christie, followed by Brooklyn Bridge.

Quebec Winter Carnival 2010 Mascot Bonhomme

The biggest winter carnival in the world is the annual Quebec Winter Carnival, in the heart of Old Quebec.   This year’s three weeks of fun in the snow is from  January 29 to February 14, 2010. 

Three weeks of festivities at the Quebec Winter Carnival include  parades, fireworks, slide runs, a giant foot ball game, concerts, snow sculptures, horse-drawn sleigh rides, dogsled rides, an Ice Tower, ice skating and ice fishing.  

All of it is watched over the carnival mascot, a large white friendly snowman who seems to appear everywhere at once, named Bonhomme.  He is always smiling, dressed in a red stocking cap and a colorful sash around his waist, his chest decorated with round black buttons.  Of course there’s a person inside the costume, welcoming you both in French and in English, the dual languages of Quebec.

One of the most popular carnival events is a canoe race on the St. Lawrence River.  Some years the river is frozen solid, and teams pull their wooden canoes over the ice instead of paddling them through the water.  Another is the snow bath, in which a 100 or so hardy partyers strip to their bathing suits and roll around in the snow.  Of course, snowball fights have been known to erupt.