Port Jefferson Ice Festival is still cool six years later
By Julianne Mosher
For its sixth consecutive year, the Port Jefferson Ice Festival brought in thousands of guests to the village after stormy weather caused a rain date activation.
Originally scheduled for Jan. 18 and 19, the festival was postponed to Saturday, Jan. 25 and Sunday, Jan. 26 where weather was sunny, but chilly — a perfect combination for the more than two dozen ice sculptures to thrive.
For more than half a decade, the annual Port Jefferson Ince Festival, hosted by the Port Jefferson Business Improvement District, has brought in Rich Daly, owner of Ice Memories Inc. in Mastic Beach.
Daly, who is an award-winning ice sculptor with over 200 competition titles, including a Guinness World Record for carrying 60 sculptures in under three hours, took to the tennis courts to show several live carvings including Olaf the snowman from “Frozen” where people of all ages watched the master carver in awe.
Throughout the village, pre-made ice sculptures from Daly’s shop decorated the sidewalks outside of local businesses. In addition to the sculptures, visitors enjoyed live ice carving demonstrations, ice corn hole, marshmallow roasting, hot chocolate stands, ice mini golf, skating demos, tractor rides, karaoke, interactive games and live dance and music performances.
