Coming up this weekend in Niles is the 21st annual Hunter Ice Festival.
Lisa Croteau is the director of the city of Niles Main Street program and tells us the festival is a big event for the community each year.
“It’s our largest winter event,” Croteau said. “We typically have about 30,000 to 35,000 people come to town over the weekend to see really glorious art in ice.”
Everything kicks off Friday with Fire and Ice, a live carving show that gets set on fire. Live ice carving will take place throughout town on Saturday and Croteau says there will be a variety of activities for the whole family.
“We have a wonderful interactive kids area that’s sponsored by Indeck Energy. We’ll have ping pong, golf, a sledding hill with a toboggan run, tick-tac-toe, checkers, and this year they’re doing ice pickleball.”
Of course, the highlight is the ice carving, with five artists coming in from all over the country. Croteau says there will be a speed ice carving competition Saturday at 4:30, and all of the sculptures will remain up until they melt.
Everything will wrap up on Sunday afternoon. Croteau invites everyone to town this weekend, urging all to “come and play in Niles.”
