A winter queen, crowned in summer?
In a coronation on July 26 that was as quiet as falling snow, Jocelyn O’Neill was crowned Aurora, 2023 Queen of the Snows of the St. Paul Winter Carnival.
O’Neill’s transition from South Wind Princess to queen, in an unannounced ceremony at Landmark Center in downtown St. Paul, is rare enough to be historical for the 137-year-old Carnival, but it was an unheralded event that followed an equally quiet dismissal.
So, what happened? Why was Liv Swenson, who was crowned Queen of the Snows with great fanfare during the 2023 St. Paul Winter Carnival on Jan. 27, dismissed and replaced by a runner-up less than six months later?
In a drama that is as opaque as a road in a blizzard, it depends on who you ask.
After receiving an anonymous tip about Swenson’s removal, the Pioneer Press reached out to her for comment.
Because rumors about the decision are swirling in Winter Carnival circles, she says, she decided it was time to defend herself publicly:
“I truly believe I didn’t do anything wrong,” says Swenson, 24, of Eagan, “and certainly nothing on purpose.”
Neither Lisa Jacobson, the president and CEO of St. Paul Festival & Heritage Foundation, the organization that produces the St. Paul Winter Carnival, nor other leaders associated with the nonprofit are saying much about Swenson’s dismissal beyond a 35-word official statement that was sent to the Pioneer Press after it inquired about the highly unusual exit.
“After multiple attempts to support and mentor her, the St. Paul Festival and Heritage Foundation (SPFHF) has made the difficult decision to remove Ms. Liv Swenson from her role as Queen of the Snows 2023,” the statement read.
People wearing crowns
Any public drama surrounding this royal family is usually limited to how cold it will be during the King Boreas Grande Day Parade in January.
(Sometimes, it’s bitterly cold.)
The Winter Carnival, a celebration of winter in St. Paul, is an annual event that dates back to the 1800s. The royals have long given the festival a bit of sparkle and warmth in the gloom and chill of winter.
The program has been modernized in recent times: Now, queens have to be at least 21 years old — but they don’t need to be single. It’s a more diverse royal family now, too, including moms and grandmas on the roster.
Still, it is often a younger queen on the arm of King Boreas, who is traditionally a more established business owner or well-known community figure.
That’s the case in 2023: This year, sports fans were buzzing over the announcement that Leo E. Lewis III, a former wide receiver with the Minnesota Vikings and the longtime president of Lewis Sports Foundation, would serve as the 86th King Boreas.
While the man who serves as Boreas is invited to do so beforehand because of the nature of the role, including financial obligations, the woman who serves as Queen of the Snows competes for the role in a candidacy process that lasts more than two months.
Every January, at the start of the Winter Carnival, the king’s identity is revealed and a queen is named at their coronation, along with a royal entourage of princes and princesses.
Together, along with other characters, these costumed folks represent the “Legend” of the Winter Carnival. The royal family’s role involves personifying and celebrating winter in St. Paul as they face off against the volatile warmth of early spring as depicted by the fire king, Vulcanus Rex, and his rowdy Krewe.
The fairy-tale fun starts during the 10 days of the festival, including appearances atop parade floats as well as live segments on local news.
Goodwill ambassadors
These goodwill ambassadors for the St. Paul community and the carnival continue playing their roles throughout the year as they travel in the metro and beyond, including trips to events from Manitoba to Florida. They also spread cheer by visiting local nursing homes, schools and many other places.
The yearlong commitment is a big one for the whole royal entourage, a commitment that includes taking time off from work as well as various personal expenses.
The Pioneer Press asked Jim Flaherty, who was King Boreas LXXX in 2016, about group dynamics and expectations in a typical year.
“Love the Carnival — I think it’s a great organization; I think it’s a huge benefit to the city,” he says. “But you also have a lot of volunteers. They come from all different walks of life. The ladies, it’s more of a pageant, and there’s obviously a lot of feelings there. From the king’s side of things, he’s traditionally been a successful businessman in the community who wants to share a cause and give back and do great things. But with that, you always have a lot of personalities. It’s a big family — you’ve got four princesses, four princes, a king and queen, guards … it’s an interesting dynamic and you have to navigate it.”
While he says he doesn’t know much surrounding the circ*mstances in 2023, he does know one constant every year:
“We all have to hold ourselves to a code of conduct,” he says, “that is not detrimental to anyone else.”
In years past, sources say, there have been members of the extended royal family who have stepped away from their roles for health or personal reasons.
The last time a queen stepped down, however, was in 1957, when Eva Wicker, a Pioneer Press employee, got married and was replaced by Barbara Geiger (at the time, the queen had to be single). So, Swenson’s departure 66 years later is big news in Winter Carnival circles — big enough that the 1962 Queen of the Snows heard about it from Tucson, Arizona.
The last time a Winter Carnival queen departed during her reign was 1957 — and she was getting married
“To me, it’s unprecedented,” said Penny Hicks Bond, now 82. “From what little I know about the situation, which is almost nothing, I feel very sorry for the young lady who stepped down. It’s really too bad.”
As for Bond’s own experience, she remembers how supportive her own Winter Carnival royal family was when her father died suddenly during her reign, especially King Boreas, William “Bud” Chandler. Her biggest controversy — if you could call it that — was a friendship she forged across the river.
“I became really close to the Queen of the Lakes, Pamela Albinson, and the Winter Carnival was not really crazy about that idea,” she says with a laugh.
No “insider information” was shared, though, and the queens’ relationship has endured.
“She was the maid of honor at my wedding,” she says. “We are still close.”
A bystander’s perspective
But what did the royal family’s subjects notice about their king and queen?
During the second Saturday of Winter Carnival, on Feb. 4, Beth Michaud and her dog, Lucy, headed to Doggie Depot at Union Depot in Lowertown for a different kind of coronation: Lucy, a rescued husky mix, had been chosen by voters as the 2023 Canine Queen of the Snows.
Amid the happy and barking chaos of this dog-friendly event, Lucy would be crowned by her human counterpart, as would the canine king.
By now, after attending events and gatherings around the clock for nine days, the royal family was surely exhausted. But Michaud says she saw nothing amiss with the queen’s demeanor or interactions.
“Actually, because she crowned Lucy, I have a cute video,” Michaud says of the queen. “As she crowned her, Lucy looked up at her and rolled into the queen’s arms and the crowd went, ‘Awwww!’ It was really adorable.”
Michaud says the queen seemed to be acting professionally and appropriately in their short encounter.
“Nothing weird,” she says. “She seemed very nice. She was very kind. Everything seemed legitimate as far as her acting the role. She was very kind to Lucy.”
Michaud says she was equally impressed with Lewis as King Boreas.
“My parents were at coronation and he sat and talked to them and my aunt,” Michaud says. “He took the time, when he didn’t really have to. My parents were so excited, because they remembered him from the Vikings.”
The king and queen’s entourage — from princesses to princes to guards and more — also didn’t raise red flags.
“I was so impressed with everyone I met with the royal family,” she says. “They seemed excited and it made us excited to be part of it all.”
A chilly phone call
Yet, just a few days after Winter Carnival ended, Tami Swenson — the queen’s mother — tells the Pioneer Press that she had a “strange” conversation with someone on the periphery of the royal family.
(We are not naming the person because they were not made available to speak to the media.)
Tami, who says she took notes during the Feb. 8 call, recalls that this person shared a litany of complaints — some of them seemingly minor — about her daughter. Those complaints, she says, included late arrivals to the royal bus, odd complaints about the queen’s lack of formal greetings and observations about her general attitude. The queen’s migraine was also questioned (she had fled to a bathroom at an event because of sudden nausea that can accompany migraines).
The upsetting call concluded, Tami says, with the person informing her that Swenson should consider herself on probation and should think about stepping down.
“And that was like 13 or 14 days after meeting my child,” she recalls.
It didn’t make any sense, Tami says.
“That’s what we have been struggling with all along,” Tami says. “The ‘Why?’ … I even wrote down, ‘I don’t understand why we are here and how we got here.’ ”
She still doesn’t.
A short reign
“I had thought things were going OK,” Swenson says of her first days as queen. “There were a couple of things that needed to be fixed, but it was the first week.”
Yes, Swenson says, she was late to board the bus during Carnival (in one of three instances she recalls, an interview with the Pioneer Press ran late — we confirm this and apologize). No, she does not believe she was ever disrespectful.
She didn’t feel uneasy about the start of her reign, she says, until that February phone call.
“It was such an extreme reaction,” she says.
As the months went on, the unease deepened and started to affect her confidence.
Swenson was mentored by a former queen — kings and queens traditionally have mentors, but she says she would not characterize the mentoring as intensive; the mentoring, she said, typically involved check-ins by phone after an event. She also relied on her own personal mentor, Cindy Shanley, a family friend who is a past princess and a past prime minister, someone who supported and advised her during her candidacy as well as during her reign.
Shanley talked her through the growing tensions.
“Every time Liv would call and ask my opinion, I would just say, ‘OK, you just keep moving forward, hold your head high, you’re doing a great job,’ ” Shanley recalls.
Shanley says the focus was on keeping the queen feeling strong and acting positive.
By July 7, however, Swenson says they were in formal mediation.
After creating an “action plan” for herself, Swenson seemed enthusiastic at a coronation in Eagan on July 10.
“Good evening, everyone, I am really, really excited to be here tonight,” she said to the gathered crowd in the city she calls home.
The king, while introducing the queen cordially, didn’t appear to make eye contact with her while they were sharing the stage and the moment.
Was the appearance, shown in a video posted on YouTube by Eagan Television, indicative of the chill that Swenson describes?
“It just seemed like the onus has always been on Liv to ‘fix this,’ ” Tami says of her daughter, who was 23 years old during her reign. “Was Leo as king talking to his mentor? I don’t know if anybody talked to Gary Schaak as Prime (Minister) — where were his advisers in all of this? I don’t get how (middle-aged) people … weren’t responsible for their behavior.”
A source familiar with the Carnival told the Pioneer Press they were aware of tensions between Swenson and Lewis but did not witness any behavior they believed warranted her dismissal.
By summer, Swenson’s family was staying close.
“I created a family schedule to make sure at least one person was with her at every single event,” Tami says.
Ultimately, Swenson says, she did not feel supported by Winter Carnival, as the official dismissal statement proclaims.
“I would disagree with that a lot,” she says. “I don’t think this is true.”
The Pioneer Press reached out to Lewis for his perspective on what went wrong.
“I would refer you to Lisa Jacobson at the St. Paul Festival and Heritage Foundation,” Lewis told the Pioneer Press.
Jacobson, who has been president and CEO of the organization since 2021, declined to answer detailed questions about the matter.
Swenson did provide the Pioneer Press with a copy of the notice of her dismissal, which she said she received July 13 — three days after the Eagan coronation. The letter, dated July 14 and addressed to her attorney, was from an attorney for the St. Paul Festival and Heritage Foundation.
“The decision was based on many factors,” the letter states, “including her ongoing violations and unwillingness to comply with the policies and expectations for her role as outlined in the 2023 Protocol and Exchange Manual for Legend Characters, complaints received by SPFHF leadership, and direct observations, including during meetings specifically held in response to concerns about her behavior …”
Swenson says she takes issue with all the allegations, including the vague ones (she says she asked for details about the “complaints,” but never received them). However, it does not appear to be a situation she can appeal.
“This decision is final,” the letter states.
The correspondence also instructs Swenson to return all items provided to her for her role as queen, including her crown, sash, clothing, accessories and her name tag.
It concludes by noting that the nonprofit “wishes Ms. Swenson the best in her future, and thanks her for the service she provided, and wish the outcome had been different.”
Another removal
Swenson has not been the only volunteer dismissed this year; a guard is also gone from the royal family’s entourage.
Gordon Carney, 51, of St. Paul, was a South Wind Guard, a member of the 2023-24 Order of the Royal Guard, a group that escorts the royal family. It was not his first time volunteering with a group associated with the Winter Carnival — Carney served in 2020 and 2021 as a Vulcan.
The trouble in 2023 started during the Memorial Day holiday weekend, Carney says.
“We were at an event in Zimmerman when I was pulled aside by the Prime Minister and King Boreas,” he recalls. “They asked me if I had gotten an email from Lisa Jacobson and I said, ‘No, I’ve been at the cabin. I’ve had no service all weekend.’
“They said, ‘There is a post out there that your wife posted and we’d like it taken down,'” Carney says.
What was the post?
Carney declined to comment, saying he never saw the post in question. However, in a statement to the Pioneer Press, the nonprofit characterized the content of it as offensive and in reference to the Winter Carnival.
Carney said his wife did not want to speak to the Pioneer Press about her post, but he did say that the content was absolutely not related to the Winter Carnival or the royal family.
Both sides agree there was a delay in the removal of the post. This caused issues for Carney.
“King Boreas said, ‘You’re suspended until it’s taken care of,’ ” Carney says.
Carney says he was confused.
“I’m being suspended for someone else’s post?” he says he thought, flabbergasted.
The organization referred the Pioneer Press to its “Protocol Manual.” When using social media, the protocol dictates for the “Legend” characters, “you assume full personal responsibility and liability for any content that is disseminated by you or by anyone at your direction or with your consent.”
By the time the post in question was removed, it was too late.
“I got a letter, postmarked June 15, saying they accepted my resignation,” Carney says. “What resignation? I never resigned.”
Carney is speaking out, he says, because he feels he was wrongfully dismissed.
“I didn’t do anything wrong,” he says.
He also said he never saw the queen doing anything wrong, either.
“I thought she was doing a good job,” he says.
Just like Swenson, he misses serving officially in his unique role.
“I’m all about volunteering,” he says. “I miss the community engagement, I miss the parades and interacting with the kids. That’s what I miss the most.”
Swenson can relate: The recent college graduate is not new to the customs, traditions and protocols of Winter Carnival: Her grandparents, Dan and Carol Swenson, were active with the royal family for many years, including coronation, which influenced her decision to run for Queen. Just like her grandpa, who served as a guard and a captain of the guard, she wanted to stay involved after her reign
“I had the next five years, at least, planned around this organization,” Swenson says. “So I’m grieving the life that I wanted to have.”
From white to pink … to red?
A week after Swenson’s removal, she donned a pink dress and a smile as she crossed the river to attend an Aquatennial event for the Minneapolis festival’s outgoing royal family. She was accompanied by her fiancé and her mother.
It was a glittering gathering of tiara-topped people: The St. Paul Winter Carnival royal family was there, she says, along with members of other royalty programs.
It was awkward, she admits.
So why go?
“Even though it was very difficult to show up so soon after I had been removed, with all the rumors floating around, I wanted to show the Aquatennial family my respect,” she says. “They were the group I was closest to when I was queen — they were the most welcoming and kindest people I met.”
Now what?
For now, she’s spending her days working from home and staying busy with crocheting projects as she considers her next volunteering gig.
“It’s amazing how much the Vulcans do for the community,” she says with a smile.
Regrouping
There are more than 150 days until the 2024 Winter Carnival begins on Jan. 25, but the 2023 royal family is still busy making appearances and attending events, including summer parades and festivals.
Swenson’s last public appearance was on that stage in Eagan. It’s a different queen waving from the Winter Carnival parade floats now, most recently at Canadian Days on Sunday in Little Canada.
Shanley says she wishes this royal story could have a happy ending for Swenson.
“I would love to see her name cleared,” the mentor says.
It’s unclear if that will ever happen.
The Pioneer Press reached out to John Maslowski, a member of the St. Paul Festival and Heritage Foundation’s board of directors who also served as a judge during the 2023 candidacy process.
In late July, Maslowski told the Pioneer Press that he expected to learn more about the dismissal at a special meeting for the board.
“Our protocol committee — we have a process,” Maslowski says. “We trust and believe in our processes. Now the decision was made to dismiss the queen from her role; now the board is going to be receiving an update on what happened and what led up to this. That’s the meeting coming up in August.”
The meeting, held on Monday, was closed to the public.
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