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The 49th Annual Griz Days Festival takes place on March 6 - 8, 2026. FREE for spectators of all ages!
Voted by Avenue Calgary Magazine as the Best Mountain Festival in 2023, Fernie Griz Days takes place the first weekend of March. Fernie locals celebrate the Griz every winter to bring epic powder snow to Fernie!
The annual Griz Days Festival is traditionally Fernie’s biggest winter event, encompassing the entire community and drawing visitors from near and far.
The Griz is the man that brings Fernie's epic snow. Legend says the Griz was born back in the year 1879 amid a cruel and bitter winter in a grizzly bear’s cave high in the mountains. Sometime later the resident bear awoke, mean and ravenously hungry. A terrible duel of the two mighty figures ensued between the two – one fighting for his life and the other for his dinner.
As the story continues, the town’s people went into the mountain that very next day to discover the source of all the noise from the previous night. They looked high and low on the mountain, then known as Snow Valley. Once one of the men thought he saw a little boy wearing a bear coat and hat nimbly leaping from rock to rock on the lofty peaks. His friends all laughed at him and jokingly accused him of seeing things, and the incident was soon forgotten.
In recognition and admiration of the man who became known as “GRIZ”, the town’s people held a festival all week. Sporting events, competitions, parades and gatherings marked the gala week. The citizen who best embodied the spirit of “Griz” through that week was made honorary Griz for the rest of the year. To this day this festival continues every March in tribute to our powder king.
