Ice sculptures adorned the Loop this past Saturday for the annual Delmar Loop Ice Carnival. Festivities ranged from a temporary tattoo scavenger hunt to free showings of extreme winter sports movies. Even a putt-putt pub crawl, a miniature golf course spanning from Kingsland to the Pageant Walkway. Golf attire was encouraged.
“This is the fourth time we’ve been here, and it gets bigger every year,” said David Van Camp, owner of the company Ice Visions.
The company was invited to the Ice Carnival by the coordinators to do the sculptures and provide an ice-carving demonstration later on in the day. Ice Visions also carved two ice slides for the younger ones to enjoy.
“It takes about four hours to build both of them,” said Van Camp. It was a little bit past 11 a.m as children slid down one of the slides while Van Camp and an assistant finished the other.
A number of non-profit organizations also used the Ice Carnival as an opportunity to build something else: awareness.
“People are excited about politics,” said Kathleen Farrell, chair of the department of communications at Saint Louis University. “We saw [the carnival] as a way to tell people what [The League of Women Voters] stands for.”
Farrell is a board member of the St. Louis branch of the League of Women Voters. The group started in St. Louis after women gained the right to vote in the ’20s and studies all the valid issues and distributes information to members and to the public in order to make women more informed voters.
Besides the scheduled festivities, performance groups from Washington University in St. Louis, jugglers and live artists entertained passing carnival-goers throughout the day.
Kevin Irish played his guitar on the street corner. Ever since the summer, Irish has been on the Loop almost every day playing music.
“I’m really glad I came today because I’m makin’ money,” said Irish, a senior photography major at Webster University. “[I] wish it could’ve been warmer, though.”
At about 35 degrees, the temperature was warm enough for most.
Some of the ice sculptures evan began to melt due to the sunshine and higher than normal temperatures for January.
“If it were like yesterday, I would have stayed home,” said carnival attendee Patti Walley.
