The festival is organised by the groups behind three ice sports facilities - the ice rink, curling rink and luge.
Maniototo ice rink manager Fred Newman said overcast weather and warm winds on Saturday left organisers nervous about whether the event would go ahead, as the ice was thawing rapidly.
"The way it was looking, we thought 'oh no', we were going to have to pull the pin. The decision was being made at 8 o'clock this [Sunday] morning. But, luckily, there was a hard frost overnight and we were able to use the luge after all, so we could carry on," he said.
The mild weather put paid to the idea of having curling and skating on natural ice, on the Centennial Pond opposite the rink, and also meant the new Snow Park track next to the luge was out of action for tobogganing.
"Nobody seems to mind though. We've got beautiful sunny weather and everyone's having a ball," Mr Newman said.
"There's more and more people coming along to this every year and most are family groups."
The festival offered people the chance to try skating and luging at a special low price for the day, and "have a go" curling was free.
New Zealand Olympic Luge Association president Geoff Balme was there to help first-time lugers, along with resident luge coach Guntis Rekis.
Mr Balme said it was an unusually late start to the luge season in Naseby, and he was hoping for some more natural snow to boost the "man-made" snow on the track.
"The natural snow is the best. The man-made snow sets like cement."
The top half of the luge track had natural snow, while the bottom half only featured the snow-machine variety.
The festival provided a great introduction to the sport, he said. Several children who had their "first taste" of luging at last year's festival had come back for another go and enrolled for the school-holiday luge camp which begins today.
