Fire In Ice 2015 Frederick’s First Saturday February
Walking through the huge crowds in historic Frederick Maryland’s downtown, we quickly noticed that cars were filling up the main streets. The town was hopping! People were shopping and enjoying the excellent cold weather festivities! The amount of strolling people on the sidewalks was much larger than usual. That is due to the February ‘Fire In Ice!’ event presented by the Downtown Frederick Partnership. One of the biggest ‘First Saturday’ events of the year it was great luck to find ourselves here tonight! Wow! After looking at some homes for rent downtown we were off to enjoy the ice sculptures! Thankfully the weather was quite mild compared to the freezing weather we have been enduring. The ice sculptures scattered about town were radiant with their glitzy sparkle and shine. As the sun set, the sky darkened, and the city lights came on, the ice began to reflect any surrounding colors. Night’s magic created sparkle city and Fire In Ice !
Graceful and regal, the stunning ice swan below was one of my favorites sculptures. Getting quite a bit of attention from the crowds, lots of phones were snapping up a great photo op.
While walking along the frozen water of Carroll Creek we came upon a series of ice signs… ice advertisements? Really? We wondered where are the ‘Fire In Ice’ sculptures? Seemed like this would have been the ideal spot to showcase some awesome ice art. Hmmmm… We moved on hoping to find the real ice sculptures along the various streets of town. Found this chilly sledding penguin hanging out on a street corner.
Spied a happy waving lobster! Alright! Nice! We got some real ice sculptures happening!
A fantastic goat ice sculpture with the handsome details! The pointy long horns are exquisite.
Sitting quietly on the Market and Church Street’s corner we found a sweet little snowflake.
Notice how you can see right through this ice cameo to the people chatting on the other side.
The nationally known restaurant ‘Volt’ was hosting a lively family friendly fire pit situation. Adults were lined up to get drinks served from a whiskey bar ice sculpture.
Close to their grand front entrance steps ‘Volt’ also displayed a colorful Maryland flag ice sculpture.
Continuing along Market Street we passed an ice fairy chillin’ in front of a warm shop window.
Of course there was a shamrock in front of Bushwaller’s Irish Pub.
Seeing the ice sculpture representing world peace I actually wished it could be a permanent addition to the town… perhaps in glass.
In front of a jewelry store there was a great big shiny chunk of ice bling.
We kept on truckin’ and passed a trippy Dead head in front of Zebop’s groovy shop.
At Carroll Creek there was a line of folks waiting to get their photo taken upon this ‘Frozen Ice Throne.’
Overall this year we noticed there were more ‘typographic ice sign ads’ for businesses than artistic 3D objects d’art sculptures during ‘Fire In Ice.’ That is disappointing as each sign is one less opportunity for creative ice art. To be honest, we were we not the only ones who observed the blatant advertising signage pretending to be sculpture. We heard others sarcastically faking their “Oh’s and Ahh’s” as they passed these icy signs. Some adding a few unsavory comments. The people’s opinion was that the ads were a lame fake out. I do understand that this special evening is there to bring shoppers into downtown during the slow winter months, so I hope everyone did a brisk business. I just don’t want the organizers to lose sight of what brings folks like us out on cold winter’s nights en mass… it’s actually getting to view real three dimensional ice sculpture. Let’s support more inventive ice creations by ice sculpture artists for everyone to enjoy while they shop and dine. Moving forward into the future of ‘Fire In Ice’ night hopefully there are less of these ad only signs. It can only give the event a bad name to just have “ice advertising.” Stores may lose those great crowds since there will be nothing left to see and that would be a meltdown of a good thing. “Art not ads!” I will finish with only one photo of a ice advertisement sign because it is a worthy group which supports the arts in Frederick. I previously shared this same event in 2013 here on my other blog when we came across the ice sculptures on a Sunday outing as well. Even as the sculptures began to slightly melt, you can see the shape of the ice sculpture reflected the shop’s main business activity, and were not a lettered sign molded from ice. Hope to see more sculptural ice shapes in the future Frederick.
As always we really had a wonderful evening strolling through the historic downtown Frederick area that we love so much. Trying to dine at some of the downtown restaurants that evening, we woefully found out it would be a two hour wait, without having previously made reservations for ‘Fire In Ice’ night. Lesson learned… next year make reservations ahead of time! After all that walking we really had worked up an appetite, we exited to our car to purchase food at the Wegman’s Food Store and bring it home to eat. Looking out through the car window we passed two wonderfully executed ice sculptures on East St. of a bird, and a butterfly. Wish we had gotten photos of those two lovely piece of art! The serendipity of being there during this ‘First Saturday’ in February for ‘Fire In Ice’ was perfect. Thank you Frederick for all that you do to make life fun! Next February we will be living downtown when the Ice Queen arrives! Yes, we ended up renting one of the townhouses we walked through that very day, and we are now officially Fredlandian’s!
