Carvers show skills at festival
The warm weather did nothing to thaw the spirit of ice festival goers Saturday as they poured into Diamond Park by the thousands.
Called Carved in Ice festival, the event featured chain saw ice sculptures, food trucks and a chili cook-off contest.
Local eateries, breweries, wineries and distilleries wrapped around the park, as festival goers sampled food and drinks from Butler and Pittsburgh.
“It's a great turnout,” said Kyle Hilfiger, a Butler AM Rotary member. “The weather is warm and there's no sun, so the ice isn't melting.”
Last year, the weather was even warmer, melting much of the ice.
Crowds flocked as chainsaws roared to life in the experienced hands of the DiMartino Ice Company sculptors. Bits of ice flew as great chunks were removed before the fine details could be put into place by picks, grinders and other smaller power tools. With outlines and picture guides, the DiMartino Ice Co. has its frozen art down to a science.
The Ice Sculptures were positioned around the park with their sponsors' signs next to them. Sponsors paid around $500 for each sculpture depending on how many were bought and the specifications given to the sculptors.
Sculptures included a Toyota Tundra pickup truck, a Subaru Sedan, a throne and many more.
Missy Carbon of Butler had just arrived at the festival with her children, Isabella and Mason. They were perusing the sculptures.
Mason said his favorite was the Eagle.
“Mine's the ice dog!” Isabella said.
Carbon said they were enjoying the many things the festival had to offer.
“We're getting food and drinks, we're having a really good time,” she said.
The line for the ice throne stretched back through the park as friends and family posed for pictures and children crowded the carved ice slide, waiting for their chance to go down it.Throughout the crowd, Rotary members in red antlers sold raffle tickets to passers-by.At the Butler Art Center, the Chili Cook-Off was well under way as hundreds filtered in to sample the chili and vote for their favorite.“It's been phenomenal,” said Cindy Harbison, chairman of the cook-off. “At 1:30 we've already served 350 people.” The contest still had two hours to go, and foot traffic seemed only to be increasing.People who paid $5 could walk by the chili booths and taste samples of different chili batches before casting their votes. The winner of the cook-off would receive the People's Choice Chili Bowl trophy. The voters sampled the chili like sommeliers, carefully parsing through the various qualities of each.The chili cooks looked on in suspense as more judges poured in.At 3:30 the votes in the chili contest were tallied and the verdict was brought to Diamond Park. The crowd gathered around as the new chili champion was named: King's Restaurant. The crowds applauded the King's award-winning chili and continued the festivities.“We're overwhelmed by the way people are responding,” Harbison said. “All of the money raised by the festival will go to the numerous charities the Butler AM Rotary sponsors,” Harbison said.When the festival was first proposed last year, Harbison quickly began rounding up restaurants and chili cooks for the contest. The event itself, she said, was the brainchild of Dick Musko, former president of the Butler AM Rotary.Musko was seated back in Diamond Park under the Rotary tent, selling raffle tickets and engaging with the festival goers.He was the one who proposed the first festival, which took place last year around the same time.“I'd been going up to Franklin to their festival,” he said. Franklin had been putting on an ice carving festival for years. One night he had dinner with Ernie DiMartino, the owner of DiMartino Ice, and asked him if his company had the time to do a festival in Butler.“Watching those guys carve ice, making images out of those big ice blocks, it's fascinating,” he said.Soon enough, Butler had an ice carving festival of its own.The variety the festival offered took hours for attendees to go through.A local Boy Scout troop kept fires in metal fire pits and DYEnamic Flame, a Butler area fire performance group, entertained crowds with dances and tricks with flaming hula hoops, ropes and more. Throughout the day, children could meet the Snow Queen, Snowman and many other characters.Meanwhile, scores of local pet-owners walked their dogs, freshly groomed and dressed their best, throughout the festival.
