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Ice Festival displays add extra cool factor to a chilly downtown Marietta

By Michelle Dillon 3 min read

MARIETTA -- People braved the wind, cold and snow to have art in downtown Marietta this weekend.

Marietta Main Street and The Glenwood Community hosted the annual Marietta Ice Festival from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday.

The festival features ice sculptures by Marietta resident Tyson Whistler, owner of Whistler Ice Works. He began sculpting ice more than 20 years ago when he worked at the Lafayette Hotel.

Whistler carved 16 ice sculptures for this year's festival, each of which was on display at a Marietta business. Sculptures could be found up and down Front Street, Putnam Street and Tiber Way at American Flags and Poles, Clutch Collective and Wit & Whimsy, the Cook's Shop, the Lafayette Hotel, Just a Jar Design Press, Marietta Brewing Co., the Marietta Community Foundation, Marietta Makery and Threads Boutique, Peoples Bank, Peoples Bank Theatre, Tiber Way Grille and the Armory.

Tyson also had a live demonstration of ice sculpting at 1:30 p.m. He used a chainsaw to carve a fire breathing dragon.

People from the local area and farther attended the event.

Dylan Mayle and Lauren Harris of Parkersburg said it was their first time at the Ice Festival.

"All the sculptures were really well done," Harris said.

Mayle said he had fun, "but it's really cold out there though".

Jessica Hostutler of Zanesville came to the Ice Festival with her family.

"I've actually never been here before. I actually was on Facebook and (saw) an ad," she said.

Hostutler said she decided to make a weekend trip out of the festival.

"We've seen three of them so far, it looks nice," she said of the sculptures.

Business owners benefit from the Marietta Ice Festival as well.

Bobby Rosenstock is the owner of Just a Jar Design Press. Just a Jar is a letter press and woodcut poster shop that makes poster art and fine art prints on antique printing presses, Rosenstock said.

He has sponsored an ice sculpture every year that there has been a Marietta Ice Festival.

Whistler created an ice sculpture for the shop that is based on one of their illustrations, Rosenstock said. The sculpture is a fish swallowing another fish, and then an even bigger one swallowing it.

"I absolutely love Tyson's work and want to support the arts in our community, and this is a really awesome and unique form of public art," Rosenstock said.

According to Rosenstock, the Ice Festival brings a ton of people downtown.

"It's a really big bump for all the downtown businesses in what would normally be a slow time of the year," he said.

Michelle Dillon can be reached at mdillon@newsandsentinel.com.

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