Pond Fest Starts this Weekend

Each year as winter approaches, pockets of the local community begin talking about the Binghamton Pond Festival but not everyone knows what it is, so let me tell you a little bit about it.

The event started in 2016 as a weekend hockey event for local adult players to get together and have a fun tournament. That idea grew into two sold out 40 team tournaments in each of the first years. Pond Fest is now an annual multi weekend set of tournaments and events that is produced by the local nonprofit organization Broome Winterworks in conjunction with the NYS Parks Department and Chenango Valley State Park. CVSP and Pond Fest annually construct a massive 220’x110’ mechanically refrigerated ice sheet to host our pond hockey style games in a manner that stays true to old school pond hockey but that also offers reliable ice even in temperatures exceeding 60 degrees. To our knowledge it is the largest refrigerated ice sheet in North America. Pond Fest now hosts over 100 teams annually from our local community and around the country, offering nearly 1,000 adults and kids a unique outdoor experience each year.

We also give back to our community. Pond Fest was started to bring people in the hockey community together. It now reaches out into all parts of the local community. With that spirit of camaraderie we also focus on helping our community by donating money to local projects and organizations consistent with our nonprofit mission to support other organizations that offer youth education, support, and sport programs. We have donated nearly $50,000 to groups such as the Mental Health Association of the Southern Tier (MHAST), the BCC Foundation to fund scholarships at SUNY Broome, the Friends of CV State Park, the Southern Tier Hockey Association, the Binghamton Blizzard, and more.

Building and running an event like this takes a lot of dedication, especially since we have no paid staff. We are constantly looking for volunteers to help with planning and event execution. Pond Fest and CV State Park are happy to sign off on paperwork for volunteers that need to get hours in, and we welcome anyone that just wants to assist in a unique project. You can signup to volunteer on our website or email volunteer@bingpondfest.com.

If you are looking for something different to do this winter, consider giving Pond Fest a try. We have food on site from Food & Fire, Batch serving drinks, adult beverages available, Jellystone Park of Binghamton constantly hosting kids events throughout the weekends, live music, fires, games, fireworks, and lots of outdoor hockey and fun. We appreciate your consideration in helping us make Pond Fest the best it can be.

We are also working on a new project called Broome Families Forward, or BFF for short. We plan to host this event on campus on April 12. Details for this event will be forthcoming but the goal is to bring together a large and diverse collection of local resource in a stigma free environment to help improve kid and family life by creating interactive education opportunities for families based on four core themes that we have identified: Lifestyles, Happy Home, Empowerment, and Mental Health Matters. If you have interest in helping with BFF please contact me, we would love to have you join the team.