5 Things to Know About Easton's "Butter Cup"

Temperatures will be above freezing Saturday, but Easton's Butter Cup snowboarding event will still go on, Mayor Sal Panto said in a news conference Monday. 

It's essentially a repeat of , under a different name. (A "Butter Cup" is a type of snowboarding move.) But some things will be different this year, Panto said, as the city tries to make the day run more smoothly.

The competition begins at 5 p.m. Saturday in , and is expected to run until 7 p.m. Registration runs from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Saturday.

Here are five things you need to know.

1. Organizers will truck in 15-20 tons of snow from Big Boulder ski resort on Friday night to build a ramp in the southeast quadrant of Center Square. It's what the city had planned to do last year, Panto said, until a snowstorm made that plan unnecessary.

Construction on the ramp will begin Friday, with the eastern parts of the traffic circle getting shut down at 4 p.m. The ramp should be down by 10 p.m. Friday.

2. No one seems worried about the snow melting. Red Bull -- the event's main corporate sponsor -- held another Butter Cup last weekend in State College, under similar weather conditions. 

"Forty-seven degrees out and that circle is like a wind tunnel," said Bill Cornish of , the Butter Cup's main local organizer. "It's not like it's going to be out there baking in the sun."

3. for the rail jam last year. This year, Panto hopes to avoid that problem by opening parking areas -- the Perkins/Marquis Theater lots, the Governor Wolf building -- and by scheduling. The Butter Cup, he says, begins after tourism begins to die down for the day, but before the evening's show at .

There will also be buses bringing in students from local colleges; the buses will park along Lehigh Drive.

4. Expect a lot of people Downtown. Red Bull's folks say 5,000 to 7,000 people could show up. Seating at the bleachers that will be set up in Centre Square will be first-come, first serve.

Red Bull's Amanda Christensen says they're cutting off competors after 100 sign-ups.

5. Several local food vendors will be on hand, including the , hot dogs from Dave's Ice Cream, , and  the Lebanese Men's Association.