This weekend's cold blast is a thrill for some, a chill to others. It just depends whom you ask.

        For avid high-school football fans, winterlike cold during tonight's games can add to the rush of excitement as tens of thousands around the Tristate huddle in the stands.

        But if you are putting together an outdoor music event, such as the World Jam festival scheduled for Sawyer Point this weekend, forecasts of snow flurries so early in October can cool your optimism.

        “We plan to give people a hot time,” Robert Elias, executive director of Cincinnati Arts Festival, joked as he put the finishing touches on World Jam.

        “We know people will come out bundled up and they will dance to keep warm,” he said.

        Last year's festival was largely rained out, but Mr. Elias said he doubts the unusual cold predicted for Saturday and Sunday, with highs in the mid-40s and lows in mid-20s to low 30s, will seriously affect the popular festival.

        “We will have to put heaters onstage because the musicians have to move their fingers and don't have the luxury of bundling up,” Mr. Elias said.

        In Butler County's Madison Township, just west of Middletown, winter parkas are being handed out to Madison High School band members for tonight's game against Dixie High School in New Lebanon, near Dayton.

        But that's good news to Madison band director Dan Stoutenborough, who knows after 15 years of leading the school's bands onto the field that winterlike cold paradoxically adds warmth to the Friday night football experience.

        “The change in the weather adds to the excitement. It feels like football weather. Everyone sits closer together and it bonds the group,” he said.

        Marilyn Byrd's appreciation of the winter preview is both personal and professional.

        Ms. Byrd enjoys cold weather, but as co-owner of Lakeridge Tree Trimming & Landscaping near Oxford, she also profits from it.

        “It warms my heart and my billfold,” she said. “We're splitting a lot of firewood right now.”

        She said Saturday morning's predicted low temperatures will likely prompt a deluge of calls from those wanting logs for their wood-burning stoves.

        Business for those who service other heating systems has shot up since early this week, when the first forecasts of record-breaking cold and snow were made.

        “We've been busy all week,” said Steve Schweitzer, president of Schweitzer, Rogers & Sons Heating Service in Cincinnati's West End.

        In his 32 years in the heating and cooling business, Mr. Schweitzer has never seen the annual winter rush of customers so early in October.

        “Our secretary spent the whole day Monday fielding calls,” he said. “This usually doesn't happen until late October.”

        When temperatures drop from the 80s to the 30s in a matter of days, as they are expected to by the end of this weekend, the shock isn't limited to humans.

        “It's a terrible shock on trees,” said Steve Bartels, Ohio State University extension agent for Butler County.

        “Trees are like people, they need time to adjust,” Mr. Bartels said. He added, however, that the expected short cold snap will not prove fatal to trees or plants.

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