Description: Every winter Fairbanks becomes the center of the world’s most creative ice sculpture artists. Conducted annually by Ice Alaska, a nonprofit organization based in Fairbanks, The International Ice Art Championships takes place in the downtown area called Ice Park. Staged as two separate competitions, the single or multi-block, people come from all around the world to compete and view the resulting exhibits. It is amazing what people can create and design in ice!
Throughout the competition, visitors can walk through Ice Park and watch the artists at work. Because I arrived after the actual sculpting was completed, I only got to see the finished results which were quite remarkable. At night, they have beautiful colored lights which really bring the art to life. Take a look at the photos attached to this review and you can see what I’m talking about. There is one photo of "just" the clear ice by day... and then another of the same piece taken at night in all its colorful splendor. The sculptures really are breathtaking.
The single block competition is comprised of teams of no more than two artists working with a natural ice block cut from O’Grady Pond in Fairbanks. Known for it clarity and thickness, single ice blocks are massive at 3’ x 5’ x 8’ and weighing upwards of 7,800 pounds! The teams in the multi-block competition have up to four artists working on as many as ten 6’ x 4’x 3’ blocks of ice, each with an estimated weight of 4,400 pounds. They report that over four million pounds of ice are harvested from O’Grady Pond annually by Ice Alaska.
One side event that I did get to see first-hand was the Junior World Art Championships, which was contested this year for just the second time. High school students competed for the opportunity to win college scholarships for first, second and third place in two categories (Abstract and Realistic). Because these are young people competing, the ice blocks they started with were smaller (3’ x 5’ x 3’ and weighing 2,800 pounds). Limited to just 10 one or two-person teams, it was interesting to watch them bring their sketches to life in ice. I can only imagine what it was like to watch the "pros" last week!
You may wonder what tools they use to transform these massive blocks of ice into the beautiful creations. Mostly they use chain saws, drills and chisels. In the multi-block competition they could use lifts to move the large ice blocks, but in the single block competition, they had to move the ice manually which required great strength. I understand that some used flame blower torches to melt and refreeze ice to make smooth connections between blocks.
If you have little ones with you, they will enjoy the Flint Hills Resources Kids Park. Using ice to create slides and mazes for younger visitors, there is fun to be had by children of all ages. As I watched some kids playing on the slides, all I could think of is how it would be possible to "slide" down an ice slide without sticking. I’m not sure why they don’t stick, but they don’t. Many of them were on plastic type toboggans or small dish type sleds, making the ride a bit quicker.
Ice Park is open daily through March 25, 2007 or as weather permits. (I suppose a prolonged heat wave with temperatures into the thirties could kill the ice pretty quickly although that doesn’t seem too likely since the temps were still below zero during most days during my trip.) The park opens at 10am and closes at 10pm. Admission fees do apply; with a season pass available to those who plan more than a couple of visits to the park during the month long event. Adults are $8 per day, children (ages 6-12) are $4 per day, and those under age 6 are free. Annual passes are available for $25 and $10 respectively. There is parking right at the entrance so no need to worry about that and better yet, it’s free. If you get cold and need to step into a warm area for a while, there is a concession area that serves snack foods and hot beverages, as well as sodas.
If you are planning a winter trip to Fairbanks, I would encourage you to try to plan your visit around the World Ice Art Championships. I visited the Ice Park twice during my week stay and thoroughly enjoyed it each time. The art looks very different at night, so I was glad to have had the opportunity to see everything during daylight and fully lit with colored lights at night.
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