Despite the unseasonably warm temperatures, many Chicagoans will be walking in a winter wonderland at Snow Days Chicago in Grant Park from Feb. 12 to 16.

Though temperatures reached into the 60’s on Feb. 10, Snow Days Chicago, a free festival featuring a variety of winter activities, is still on. The snow blocks were made last week before the warm weather and are protected from the sun, according to its website.

“What we are trying to do is encourage everyone to come outside, get some fresh air and enjoy Chicago all times of the year,” said Ann Hickey, Director of Program Development for the Mayor’s Office of Special Events.

The activities include a snow sculpting competition, snowboard demonstration, dogsled racing, storytelling and many more fun activities for children and their families. There are 15 professional teams from all over the country, including one from Mexico, competing in the snow sculpting competition.

“They will be sculpting all different types of theme-Mrs. O’Leary’s cow, Chicago blues and snow [and] we’ve got a dragon,” Hickey said.

Chicago Public schools have also been added to the roster for the snow sculpting competition, along with two other suburban schools, Van Guard and Palatine high schools, which are previous participants.

“We’re partnering with Chicago Public Schools and we’re having five different schools involved with nine different teams,” Hickey said.

The snowboard demonstration will feature the United States of America Snowboard Association amateur and professional snowboarders who will do a snowboard rail jam.

“We’ve set up a rail that they will slide down that’s about 50 feet long,” Hickey said.

This is the first year that Snow Days will be held in Chicago. The snow sculpting competition has taken place in the suburbs in previous years and was hosted by Snow Visions.

“Snow Visions was looking for a new location-we are partnering with them to bring them downtown and create a larger event out of it, so it’s the inaugural year,” Hickey said.

The event is expecting to bring out about 50,000 people over the span of five days, which is the number of people who attended the snow sculpting competition in the suburbs.

“We’re really hoping that this turns into a larger winter festival for Chicagoans and visitors to enjoy,” Hickey said.

The president of the Grant Park Conservancy, Bob O’Neill, also has a similar goal in mind.

“The idea is to have as much involvement in the park by the Chicago community,” O’Neill said.

The Grant Park Conservancy sees Snow Days Chicago as a good example of the program it is enacting to bring more people into the park.

“It’s hard to get people out here … we think it’s a great idea,” O’Neill said .

Snow Days Chicago is sponsored by several downtown businesses such as the Chicago Tribune, Essex Inn and Epic Burger.

“It’s a nice event, it brings a lot of people around to the city and it doesn’t involve anything that’s bad for the environment,” said Tim Blucher, the cooperate general manager of Epic Burger.

Epic Burger, 517 S. State St., is a just a few blocks away from where Snow Days Chicago will be hosted.

“It’s all using natural resources from the environment and creating art,” Blucher said. “At Epic Burger we strongly believe in keeping the environment clean and using all-natural products.”

In addition to donating money to the event, Epic Burger’s sponsorship package includes their participation in Snow Days and attendees will receive a free combo from the restaurant.

“It’s just us putting our name out there, showing that we want to give back and we want to be apart of local events,” Blucher said.

Snow Days Chicago will take place Feb. 12 to 16 in Grant Park’s Spirit of Music Garden, located on the east side of Michigan Avenue between Harrison Street and Balbo Drive.

For more information, visit ExploreChicago.org.