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Nova Scotia

Winter gets cooler with the Downtown Dartmouth Ice Festival

Hundreds of people gathered on Portland Street in Dartmouth, N.S., on Saturday to enjoy some good food, music and drinks, but ice sculptures were the main attraction.

Festival drew artists from across the region

Anam Khan · CBC News ·
A man sculpts and ice sculpture while people watch and take photos
Richard Chiasson supplies ice blocks to restaurants and festivals across Atlantic Canada. (Anam Khan/CBC)

Hundreds of people gathered on Portland Street in Dartmouth, N.S., on Saturday to enjoy some good food, music and drinks, but ice sculptures were the main attraction.

The Downtown Dartmouth Ice Festival brought artists from around the East Coast to make sculptures as hundreds of people looked on.

Artists were told to use their imagination to create a sculpture from a 136-kilogram ice block.

Children look at an ice sculpture of Snoopy on his dog house created by Richard Chiasson.
Children look at Chiasson's ice sculpture of Snoopy on his dog house. (Anam Khan/CBC)
Downtown Dartmouth Ice Festival written in ice.
Downtown Dartmouth Ice Festival written in ice. Sculptures began with a block this size. (Anam Khan/CBC)
Ice sculptures lined in front of restaurants
Ice sculptures lined Portland Street on Saturday. (Anam Khan/CBC)
Customers purchase a beer over a bar made of ice.
Customers can buy a cold beverage on ice. (Anam Khan/CBC)

"I like the challenge," said Richard Chiasson, a chef who has been sculpting for 44 years. He learned to carve with butter.

"I like the public interaction. I like the outdoors … all of that. It's beautiful."

Sculptures include a swan, an octopus and a mythological creature. There is one of Snoopy lying on his dog house. 

People gaze at a sculpture of a wolf howling at the moon.
People gaze at a sculpture of a wolf howling at the moon. (Anam Khan/CBC)
A man sculpting a mermaid from ice
New Brunswick's Joel Palmer sculpts a mermaid. (Anam Khan/CBC)

Joe Palmer came from New Brunswick. When he began his sculpture, a little girl sat in the corner watching his every move.

She asked him to make a mermaid, so he did. 

"I like to just be creative," said Palmer. "I had no plan. I woke up this morning and whatever the weather was, whatever … God threw at me, I just took it."

People stand in front of an ice sculpture of an octopus.
Attendees stand in front of an ice sculpture of an octopus. Sculptures will be left to melt. (Anam Khan/CBC)

Sunday is the last day to see the sculptures before they melt away.

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