Ice Sculpting Competition

Hello! For the past five years, our town has hosted a collegiate ice sculpting competition.  Teams from colleges both in-state and out of state take part in this fun-to-watch event. 

The competition kicked off Friday evening with the creation of compulsory buffet-style sculptures, and yesterday there was a four-hour block of time for the freestyle portion of the contest. 

Downtown was jammed with spectators yesterday, but I managed to get some decent shots. The first several are of sculptures from the compulsory competition:

Very sweet - would have been nice for next month.

Let's eat at one of the popular downtown restaurants.

Elegant swan.

A calla lily, perhaps? Look at that detailed veining of the leaves.

The remaining shots are of the college students hard at work on their ice sculptures during the freestyle competition. As you'll see, the sound of power tools filled the air as these contestants labored over their works of art.

 

I had intended to return downtown today to take some photos of the finished sculptures, but it rained last night, which I assumed caused some deterioration of these sculptures. My husband walked through downtown this afternoon and confirmed this. It seems a shame that this happened after such intense work by the students, but it was fun to see the works in progress anyway!

The summary of the competition and the winners can be found HERE.