Welcome to the February slump. In the time after Valentine’s Day and before Spring Break, when girls are 5 pounds heavier from chocolate and the guys have started pouring over their bank statements (‘I spent how much on $&@*# roses??’), everyone gets a little sick of Syracuse.

And apparently, Syracuse gets a little bored with itself, too. So smack dab in the middle of our coldest month, someone decided, ‘Hey, let’s just mess with everyone a little bit and have a celebration in honor of the one thing everyone hates about this place – the winter.’

This weekend, the 25th Annual Winterfest will be showcasing the best ways to keep warm in Central New York, one beer at a time.

The best of the festivities starts on Saturday with the World’s Shortest Mardi Gras Parade, sponsored by the Magic Hat Brewing Company and 95X FM, downtown at 3 p.m. Following the parade, Armory Square will temporarily be turned into a mini-Bourbon Street with an almost ‘Nawlins-worthy bar crawl, minus Reggie Bush, plus ski jackets.

Awful Al’s Wine & Whiskey, Blue Tusk, Syracuse Suds, PJ’s, Empire Brewing Company, Limerick and Kitty Hoyne’s will all be participating in the crawl and providing drink specials to help you on your way to some very un-Lenten activities.

Hopefully the drunk chicks will keep their shirts on – not for my sake, but their own. There are few places I can think of that would be worse to get frostbite. It’s called ‘Winterfest’ for a reason, guys.

You can still earn your beads, though, if you donate $5 to the AIDS Community Resources, which will be fundraising throughout the parade and bar run.

Sunday, Winterfest’s ‘Wink Walk’ starts at noon and goes until 5 p.m., which gives you plenty of time to arise from your hungover slumber and get yourself to Hanover Square. For $10, you can buy a ticket that will gain you entry to places such as Syracuse Suds, Dinosaur Bar-B-Que and The Mission (Mexican-style chicken wings, anyone?) to taste some of the best wings Syracuse has to offer.

Being from Buffalo, I’m awfully skeptical, but I’d give it a try rather than face the piles of homework I’m sure I’ll have neglected all weekend.

If beer and chicken wings aren’t your thing, then 1). You shouldn’t be in college, and 2). Luckily, you still have things to do. On Saturday at 1 p.m., the Syracuse Crunch will be playing in the Mirabito Outdoor Classic at the New York State Fairgrounds.

For a college student’s budget, tickets are a little steep, running at $30 and $40 at syracusecrunch.com, but that ticket also offers you the privilege (or punishment) of getting to hear ‘national recording artist’ Jessie James croon the national anthem.

When you’re done thawing out (it is the first outdoor American Hockey League game ever), you can always head to the Chowder Cook-Off at Hanover Square.

Convenient, because a margarita mix-off will be occurring across the city at the same time.

Because when I play a festival, the two things I think complement each other most are cream-based soups and Mexican boat drinks, too.

Emily Warne is a junior public communications major. Her column appears weekly and she can be reached at eawarne@syr.edu.

Published on February 17, 2010 at 12:00 pm