Winter Ice Festival Meltdown

The finsihing product of the ice sculpters from the competition taken by CityLife.fyi

The Richmond Winter Ice Festival started in 2013. This was the 9th year that this event has taken place. All over Richmond for the next few weeks, until the ice melts, you will see different ice sculptures depicting various things. This event took place for about a week. There were different ice carvers, a chili for charity contest, a frozen costume contest held at Ullery's Ice Cream, a Meltdown pizza party, a family fun zone, food trucks, the Richmond Farmers Market at the old Starr Gennett Building, Hot Chocolate at Hayes Arboretum, Ice Age Activity Stations at the Joseph Moore Museum, the Meltdown Pop-In Market, Ice cream eating contest, and finally the meltdown Throwdown & Fireworks.

So much is happening aside from just the ice sculptures, but speaking of the ice sculptures who sculpts them? The first person is Andrew Thistlethwaite from San Antonio, Texas, he started sculpting in 1996 at the University of Notre Dame as a culinary apprentice. The next sculptor is Aaric Kendall from Argenta, Illinois. He started at a private dining club where he sculpted a swan of ice at a charity event. After that he went to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. The next ice sculptor is Deam DeMaris from Fate, Texas. He started carving in 1988. Later he went back to school to work on his art degree starting in 1992 and ending in 1997. Next up is Jeff Kaiser from Youngstown, Ohio. He started to carve ice at the age of 19 and then worked for over 20 years as a contract sculpture. Next is Danny Bloss ll from Niles, Michigan. He started to carve ice when the first Hunter Ice Festival in Niles took place. After that he took a class at Notre Dame's Morris Inn with an Executive Chef. He now works there, but keeps his hobby up with ice sculpting. Finally Samantha Moore from Elkhart, Indiana. She started carving ice in the year 2017 under the Michiana Ice Carvers Association. She now is continuing her career as a chef but pursuing her passion in ice carving on the side.

At the end of the festival there was a competition between the Ice Team and the Fire Team. While everyone watched this go down there were food and drinks from local restaurants and food trucks. At the end of the event the Ice Team pulled through and won the competition.