This was the weekend of the Hamilton Ohio Ice Festival. The festival takes place every other year and I go to every other festival. The biennial schedule for the festival is intentional. My quadrennial attendance is not. In fact, I didn’t realize my attendance was so infrequent and regular until I started to write this post. I believe the festival is always a two day event with activities beginning Friday evening and wrapping up on Saturday. I was there in the bright sunshine of the event’s second day in 2011 and in the cool of Friday evening in 2015. This year the theme was Games and several Monopoly pieces were on display. This post opens with my favorite: the race car.
When I can’t get the race car, I go for the other wheeled marker, the wheelbarrow. It was there, too, along with the Scottie dog an Rich Uncle Pennybags.
More recent games were also represented including Dig Dug, Pac Man, and Rock ’em Sock ’em Robots. I’ve always wondered if my sons knew that the robots they played with on Christmas morning had received a few practice punches before going under the tree.
Most of the carvings are strictly hands-off, but there is an area where games are meant to be played. How about some chilled checkers or frosted tic-tac-toe?
All outdoor events are affected by weather and those involving ice doubly so. Good weather with high temperatures can be nearly as bad as foul weather. This year’s festival was faced with both. One of the reasons I chose to attend on Friday was that rain turning to snow was predicted for Saturday. Friday’s temperatures weren’t exactly balmy but they were above freezing and carvings that were to be judged on Saturday were keep inside so as to be in the best shape possible for the competition. That’s very sensible but does result in some disappointment.
One festival activity was a Friday night only affair. Fire and Ice action started a few minutes before 7:00 when three lead carvers and several assistants went to work on three giant ice blocks on the courthouse lawn. I arrived a little later with no chance of a good view so I took some shots over people’s heads. In just about an hour, the blocks had been transformed into Mario, Princess Peach, and Bowser the fire breathing dragon. The carving was impressive not only for the speed at which it was accomplished but at the details in the finished work in spite of the speed. The fire came in two forms. Mario was tickled by flames coming from Bowser’s mouth with the aid of a propane torch, and some unidentified fiery liquid erupted in intricately carved ice bowls beside the figures. There is a glimpse of Bowser breath in the second picture, and the last picture, which I took after the crowd thinned, shows one of the bowls of fire.