O'Leary recreation director Tylan Robinson hopes the winter festival will get people out and supporting local businesses. (CBC)

Communities in western P.E.I. are joining together to create a new winter festival in the hopes of creating some tourism traffic in the area.

O'Leary, Tignish and Alberton have each pitched in $1,500 for Up West Winterfest and the province has matched that with a $4,500 donation.

"We know we've had winter carnivals here in the past, and they've been becoming increasingly difficult to organize and to make them to be the draws that they used to be at one time," said Tourism Minister Rob Henderson.

The festival, which runs through next week, will include snow sculpting, hockey, curling, fireworks and other family activities. It's been years since West Prince has seen the once-popular Santa Claus parades. The hope is by joining together the three communities can create a viable event.

Local communities have come together to pool resources, says Tourism Minister Rob Henderson. (CBC)

"Prince Edward Island is generally small, and we're dealing with demographics that are volunteer based, that seems to be on the decline," said Henderson.

"It's a matter of how do we pool our resources, how do we make them sustainable?"

Tylan Robinson, recreation director for O'Leary, is hopeful the event will get people out and involved in their communities.

"We thought what a great way to get everyone to go to different events, and keep the winter carnival as a weeklong experience," said Robinson.

Organizers are hoping they will be able to build on successes in this year's festival to develop a larger event in future years.