UW’s Jay Kemmerer WORTH Institute Releases Winter Festival Planning Toolkit

The University of Wyoming’s Jay Kemmerer Wyoming Outdoor Recreation, Tourism and Hospitality (WORTH) Institute released a new planning toolkit designed to help rural communities develop, host and evaluate winter festivals, drawing directly from the experience of the inaugural Laramie Winterfest.

The Laramie Winterfest toolkit and economic impact report provide communities with a practical, adaptable framework for designing place-based winter events that activate local assets, strengthen partnerships and generate measurable community benefits. The publication is now publicly available on the WORTH Institute website and here.

Laramie Winterfest, which first took place in February 2025, was intentionally designed as a community-driven festival built from existing local strengths, including arts organizations, small businesses, recreation groups and public spaces. The event focused on activating downtown Laramie during a traditionally slower visitation period while emphasizing accessibility, low barriers to participation and local collaboration.

Rather than offering a prescriptive “festival template,” the toolkit translates lessons learned from Winterfest into a flexible planning resource. It outlines strategies for building cross-sector partnerships; structuring funding and sponsorship models; navigating permits and risk considerations; coordinating volunteers and programming; designing communications and branding; and measuring visitor, business and community outcomes.

“Winterfest was intentionally designed to be modest, repeatable and rooted in place,” says Kayla Clark, Winterfest principal investigator. “By sharing both the data and the process in one document, we hope to support other rural communities in building events that reflect their own people, spaces and priorities.”

In addition to planning guidance, the publication includes an economic impact analysis based upon on-site surveys and headcounts collected during the festival. Findings indicate that Winterfest increased downtown foot traffic, extended visitor dwell times and supported local business activity during late winter, a period often characterized by reduced visitation in many rural destinations.

Development of the toolkit was made possible through a collaboration among the Jay Kemmerer WORTH Institute, Laramie Public Art Coalition, Albany County Tourism Board/Visit Laramie, Western AF, UW researchers and students, and additional community partners.

By publicly releasing both the process and outcomes of Winterfest, the WORTH Institute aims to support rural communities exploring winter events as a strategy for economic diversification, community vitality and seasonal activation.

For more information, call Zach Blair, the WORTH Institute’s public relations coordinator, at (307) 766-5063 or email zblair@uwyo.edu.