PREVIEW: Let Saranac Lake’s Winter Carnival help you survive the cold
1/31 - 2/9 @ The Waterhole
“Winter Carnival is sort of the backbone of Saranac Lake’s ability to get through a winter, both business wise and mentally.”
Any musician who’s ever done a bit of touring knows that winter is the time to stay home. Commuting is risky. The weather has a funny way of causing show cancellations. And even when shows do go off as planned, loading gear in and out through suboptimal temperatures isn’t exactly a ball of fun.
But Saranac Lake wants to change all that. For a town that sees more extreme winter weather than most around here, residents and business owners alike are keen for any form of excitement to distract from fears of pneumonia and frostbite; it’s literally been the case for 120 years when the town’s Winter Carnival first debuted. The longest running winter carnival in the United States, it features a multitude of all-ages based events, an incredible giant ice palace built by the town cutting ice out of the lake (last year’s is pictured above for proof!), and a smattering of live music performances hosted by The Waterhole Music Lounge.
“Winter Carnival is sort of the backbone of Saranac Lake’s ability to get through a winter, both business wise and mentally,” Waterhole owner Eric Munley tells me. “It's this really exciting 10 days where the entire town sort of says “screw it” to the cold weather and the cold temperatures and acts like it's summer.”
People from all over come to experience the festival, bringing both an undeniable economic boom and morale boost to local businesses and establishments. The Waterhole, which is Saranac Lake’s main music venue, is certainly one of those places. While they typically host one or two shows a week, they will be showcasing eight performances throughout the span of the carnival. It’s truly the culmination of everything Munley and his team do well.
“Being February, there aren’t too many bands touring through this area. So Winter Carnival, to us, has always been a display of our top favorite bands that we've worked with for a long time, and we really highlight some of the mid-sized venue bands from the Greater New York Region.”
The Water Hole is turning 55 years old this year, and is a downtown landmark for Saranac Lake residents. Munley took over the venue nine years ago with his wife Kiki Sarko, seeking to both honor its multigenerational legacy and build upon it with exciting enhancements to their live music programming.
“We strive to be the top small market venue in the country,” Munley admits. “I don't know if we're there yet, but that's what we're working towards. We focus on original music primarily, and we've really taken up the music game to the next level. It's this legacy building that is now really making a mark on the music scene in the North Country.”
In addition to curating live music, Munley also performs it. He is the mandolin player for the Blind Owl Band, a bluegrass-rock band that formed back in 2011 and split up with little notice about three years ago. After spending the bulk of his twenties traveling and performing with the band, Munley took everything he learned from an artist’s perspective with him when it came time to start running the Waterhole.
“Everything that I took from touring, all my experiences going to different venues and finding both amazing venues and lousy venues… When I had the opportunity to revamp The Waterhole, I wanted to make it an artist-first place and a business second. When you choose art first, you can have an overall experience for bands that's really comfortable from the green room to the stage.”
This year, the stars aligned for an unexpected Blind Owl Band reunion. The quartet will be taking the stage for two consecutive performances on 2/1 and 2/2. Other acts throughout the week include Annie in the Water (on 2/6), Chestnut Grove (on 2/8) and local favorites Eastbound Jesus who are kicking things off on 1/31 with The Mallett Brothers Band.
“We haven’t seen them or [the Blind Owl Band] in several years so it's always good to catch up,” drummer Carl Anderson tells me. “We started out playing with both those bands over ten years ago. It will be great to play to a packed Waterhole as well as that is a super fun venue.”
From a Blind Owl Band reunion, to an economic boom, to a welcome break from the bitterness of mother nature, Winter Carnival clearly serves many purposes for Saranac Lake. If that wasn’t enough, the festival will also be one of the few chances to catch Eastbound Jesus this winter. Thankfully, it’s for good reason, as Anderson teases something for longtime fans to look forward to.
“We've been picking away at recording a new album for a couple years but this winter we are finally locking ourselves in the studio and not leaving until the album is done. It would be great to get a new album out in fall of 2025!”
We can only hope they’ll be sharing some of their new music on stage at the end of the month.
For more information on Winter Carnival and tickets to the festival, please visit https://www.saranaclakewaterhole.com/winter-carnival
