The cool weather over the weekend helped make for a perfect setting for the Lake Metroparks Farmpark event.
Farmpark, located in Kirtland, hosted its annual Ice Festival on the evening of Jan. 27 and from 9 am to 5 pm Jan. 28. The event offered many activities and attractions related to ice.
Visitors of all ages could sit on the ice chair, while the little ones took turns sliding down the ice.
Professional sculptors were also on hand to create a variety of sculptures and compete in speed sculpting contests for spectators gathered around the Farmpark pond.
In the 10:30 a.m. show on January 28, world-renowned ice sculptor Aaron Costic of Elegant Ice Creations took just 22 minutes to transform a block of ice into a mother.
An exhibition of finished ice sculptures, including a unicorn and a dragon, was also arranged for visitors to admire, and stood alongside mobile phone screens.
Farmpark originally started inviting professional ice sculptors to participate in their annual FarmFest event during the summer.
“We thought it would be fun in the middle of July to have an ice painting, and so we put (ice artists) in the room and they drew a large crowd to the painting,” said Farmpark Events Manager Andy McGovern.
After seeing the audience’s reaction to the first show, Farmpark leaders began talking to Medina city officials about their annual ice festival.
After that, Lake Metroparks Farmpark decided to hold its first ice festival at the end of January 2017.
“It came from there and it’s grown over the years,” McGovern said. “It’s just been a fun family event.”
One family that attended the 2023 Lake Metroparks Farmpark Ice Festival on Jan. 28 was Paul and Lora Gust and their two children, 4-year-old Caleb and 7-year-old Adam.
The Gusts drove to the Farmpark, located at 8800 Euclid Chardon Road, from their home in Chagrin Falls.
Lora said that she heard about the incident from Kaleb’s elementary school teacher.
“(Caleb and Adam) love the playground, and they haven’t been able to play on their playground for weeks,” Lora said.
While Lora said Caleb and Adam were looking forward to using the Farmpark’s playground, the boys were taking several rides under the ice that had been set up outside the Farmpark’s Visitors Center.
Lora said the family didn’t mind checking out the Ice Festival attractions in the 30-degree weather.
“There is snow in that rain,” he said.
Brian and Nichole Hoaglin of Orange Village were also enjoying the Ice Festival on Jan. 28 They came with their two children, 4-year-old Luke and 2-year-old Atom.
Brian said the Ice Festival was “awesome” and said Luke and Atom thought watching Costic sculpt the woman out of ice was “pretty cool.”
McGovern noted that the Ice Festival has an agricultural connection because harvesting ice was big business before the advent of modern refrigeration.
“People go out on frozen Lake Erie and cut through the ice,” he said.
