[T]he four official buttons of the 136th Winter Carnival were designed by local cartoonist and illustrator Kevin Cannon. He most recently designed the 2021 Minnesota State Fair poster.
According to the Saint Paul Festival and Heritage Foundation:
The Saint Paul Winter Carnival [since 1886] is the oldest winter festival in the United States. It predates the Tournament of Roses Festival by two years.
As reported by The Star Tribune:
Each button design focuses on a different popular element of the carnival: the first shows how Minnesotans embrace the cold; the second shows carnival medallion-hunters in search of their treasure; the third features the Winter Carnival royal family as well as their foils, the Vulcans; and the last shows the carnival’s ice-carvers hard at work in Rice Park.
Kevin Cannon has drawn the buttons for a festival the local artist is very familiar.
The button’s “sales make up the largest fundraiser” for The Foundation.
Did the Saint Paul Winter Carnival have a hiatus last year due to the COVID pandemic despite the launch of COVID vaccine rollout or was it scaled down?
They did hold the 2021 Winter Carnival.
With local Minnesota artist Adam Turman doing illustrations.
https://www.wintercarnival.com/product/2021-buttons-4-pack/