Natalie Vance crowned Miss Winterfest 2026

GENEVA – The new Miss Winterfest has been around the ice block before.
Natalie Vance, who was crowned Miss Winterfest 2026 Saturday at Geneva High School, was involved with the Winterfest Court previously, winning a junior title in 2023.
She will bring that experience with the Miss Winterfest Court to her reign.
“Natalie will be a great leader for Winterfest,” pageant director Roberta Horvath said. “She is not new to the court. She was a past Junior Miss Winterfest Queen. She is aware of how the court works and what will be expected as our Queen. She is ambitious and a hard worker. Doing a good job is important to her. I look forward to putting our calendar together with her.”
Natalie, 14, is the daughter of Stephanie and Kyle Vance. She attends ninth grade at Edgewood High School.
Her activities include Step One Competitive Cheer and high school cheer for football and basketball.
“Natalie is excited to get the year started,” Horvath said.
Natalie was thrilled to be named Miss Winterfest.
“I was just really happy,” she said. “I was definitely really grateful that I won.”
Interestingly, she won at the youngest age for each of her titles. When she won the junior title, she was in the sixth grade and she is now in the ninth grade for the Miss Winterfest title.
“It’s pretty impressive,” her mother said.
Natalie, who had to wait three years after her junior title before vying for the Miss Winterfest title, said she was anxious to compete again.
She looks forward to giving back to the community, through supporting animal shelters and food banks and filling up help boxes.
One project that she and her court will be pursuing soon is making Valentine’s Day cards for nursing homes.
She said her friends congratulated her on winning.
“They were proud of me,” she said.
Stephanie said Natalie enjoyed her reign as Junior Miss Winterfest Queen back in 2023 as she went to all the events and got to know all the queens.
“She really enjoyed her first run,” Stephanie said.
She said her daughter wants to continue helping animal shelters and food banks, as well as causes like Shop with a Cop.
Stephanie said Natalie was surprised to win the 2026 Miss Winterfest title.
“She had very good competition,” she said.
Stephanie said she gave her daughter a hug and cried when she won.
According to Horvath, the Geneva Winterfest Pageant had 31 candidates this year, crowning 23 girls in total.
“Also crowned at the pageant were four Winterfest Court Ambassadors,” she said. “To qualify to be an ambassador, you must be completing the reign of a queen title and are unable to compete in the next age division because of age. The ambassadors will participate and contribute to court activities throughout the year.