[SNOW] WAR
Written by Tom Potter
DC is a city known for its fierce political battles on Capitol Hill, but when snow was forecasted, a skirmish of a different variety began brewing on another hill far from the city center. The battle plan was clear; Snowball fight. Meridian Hill Park. Monday, January 6th. 11AM. News of the event started buzzing across social media outlets moments after the announcement came through on January 5th, and while a simple snowball fight may not seem like something that would garner much attention, this was no simple schoolyard snow brawl. Organized by the DC Snowball Fight Association, this marked the first event of the 2025 snowball fight season, the latest of many stretching back to February 2010. By the time the sun rose on the 6th, the city had been blanketed in a thick layer of powdery snow, with more accumulating by the hour, perfect conditions for the day’s events. As 11AM ticked closer, lines of people braved the conditions and trekked across the still covered sidewalks, slippery streets and up the hill towards the park.
Joan of Arc oversees the field of battle.
On the upper field, hundreds of participants and spectators gathered awaiting the order to start. Some milled about in the square of snowballers, chatting with friends they had come with, while others busily prepared piles of powdery snowballs.
Snowballers ready their snowballs in preparation for the start of the round.
At 11:02 the countdown began and upon reaching zero, a torrent of projectiles were released and the participants dashed into the center of the field pelting anyone they could find with snowballs and frantically making more once they ran out. Lasting only minutes, the melee was over, with organizers calling the end of round 1 and urging the combatants back to their lines to begin preparations for the next round.
Chaos unfolds.
This process repeated itself multiple times with each chaotic rush followed by an orderly retreat. At one point there was a pause between rounds, where a reporter from ABC attempted to conduct an interview in the center of the square. This resulted in numerous participants on all sides, possibly in an attempt to speed up the start of the next round, pelting him with the snowballs they had ready. The gathered crowd was a motley collection of people from the surrounding areas. While almost everyone had dressed for the weather, a few had gone above and beyond donning ski goggles and full colorful snow suits. A few even wore full costumes.
There were no shortage of unique designs and costumes among participants.
Others did not wear nearly enough.
And whether there to engage in the fight or simply to spectate, what was common amongst those gathered there was a desire to share in this unique DC tradition. So who won this epic battle? It’s hard to say, but judging by bountiful laughter and smiles around one could argue that each participant was the winner, save for that unfortunate ABC reporter, who clearly lost.