By Erin, Sam, Stan, Shane, Linus, Danny, and Chris
The Laurita Ice Festival was on held on Saturday, February 21st and Sunday, February 22nd. The Laurita Winery in New Egypt, New Jersey was hosting the festival, which appealed to families, wine lovers, and anybody interested in a fun outdoor winter adventure. There were ice sculptures to look at and go inside of, entertainment, food and drinks. The festival had food trucks, wine, and hot beverages, a sledding path, music, and fireworks. One woman who attended the festival with her husband said, “We walked around and looked at the ice sculptures. We drank wine, hot chocolate, hot apple cider, and ate lunch.”
A festival attendee described her motivation for attending the festival, “We wanted to go away for the weekend, and visiting a winery sounded fun. I found out later that there would be an Ice festival, and that sounded like a fun winter activity.” Then she explained how they arrived there and what they did at the festival, “We parked at the Laurita inn where we were staying over night. Then we took a shuttle bus to the festival at the Winery. First we visited some outdoor attractions like the Ice sculptures, then we went inside the winery to eat and drink and warm up”. The festival was a highlight of her trip, “I enjoyed the festival. It was a little cold, and it started to snow, and that added to the atmosphere of the festival. Because the festival was at a winery they had some delicious drinks and food. They also had an impressive fireworks show at the end of the night.” She really enjoyed this winter activity, “It’s nice to do something outside in the winter. An ice sculpture festival is a perfect event to attend in the winter.”
The ice sculptures at the festival included a snow dragon, a fire truck, and an igloo. The artists used a blowtorch, hand saw, ice knives, and a nylon brush to make the ice sculptures. A festival attendee said, “My favorite ice sculpture was the igloo. We took pictures right in front of it, we touched it, and we went inside.” There were also some large ice sculptures that people could go inside of, “The biggest ice sculpture was a life size fire truck. Kids were going in it. There was also an igloo that people were going inside of.”
Ed Jarrett is the ice sculptor who created the various sculptures at the Laurita Ice Sculpture Festival. Ed Jarrett won the Guinness World Record for the tallest sandcastle. Jarrett has been sculpting ice for 28 years, snow for 15 years, sand for 11 years, and wood for 8 years. He first learned to sculpt in culinary school at Johnson and Wales University back in 1987. He learned to sculpt in Rhode Island, but he has sculpted all over the globe. He fell in love with ice sculpting after taking his first ice sculpting class in college. When sculpting in snow he uses tools such as drills and chisels with hammers. He also uses forms to help make different shapes. Dumpsters and backhoes are also used for ice and snow so Ed Jarrett can use them to build new sculptures. Erin interviewed Ed Jarrett, and he said it took him "6 weeks in a freezer set at a constant balmy 14 degrees fahrenheit" to prepare the sculptures for the Laurita Ice Sculpture Festival. He gains his inspiration for sculptures from himself first, then from others and google. He uses all electric tools to sculpt ice. When Erin asked Jarrett about his favorite materials to sculpt, he said, "In the hot summer, I would rather do ice... and in the cold winter, I would rather do sand."
The proceeds from the ice festival go to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Ocean County. This festival occurs annually.
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| The igloo ice sculpture. |
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| Fire breathing dragon ice sculpture. |
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| Firetruck ice sculpture that children could sit on. |
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| Evening fireworks at the winery. |
