Friends Group Ice Festival Success

In the hours before a major winter snowstorm, the Friends of Lake James State Park hosted it’s most successful public fundraising event since the group formed in 2010. The inaugural Lake James Ice Festival welcomed 250 patrons to the Paddy’s Creek Area bathhouse breezeway and took in around $5,000 for trail improvement projects.

The draw for such enthusiastic support was ice sculptor Aaron Costic and 34 of his nature-inspired, frozen works of art. The gallery of sculptures set the backdrop for a wintery evening of celebration, complete with roaring bonfires, local catering and excited anticipation for the impending snow.

All but three of the sculptures, weighing more than 100 pounds apiece, were created and shipped from Costic’s Elegant Ice Creations studio in Ohio. To complete the gallery, Costic sculpted the final pieces in front of festival-goers in a dazzling choreography of lights, music and clouds of flying frozen crystals.

“The festival came together in large part because of personal connections that led the Friends group to Aaron and his wife, Sarah, who recently joined our board of trustees,” said Lake James State Park Superintendent Nora Coffey. “Once we established the concept and decided to move forward with it, the response we got from our supporters was overwhelmingly positive.”

Readers can anticipate the Ice Festival to become a regular event in the coming years as organizers look to expand and improve on what has been a most auspicious start.