BOZEMAN — It may have been 50 degrees out on Saturday, but that didn’t stop the annual Sweet Pea Ice Carving Competition from happening in downtown Bozeman at Soroptomist Park.
“I had been an ice carver in Alaska, and I came here and I thought “where is the ice?” said Melanie Mangione.
Mangione has been the Sweet Pea Ice Festival coordinator for 10 years.
“I coordinate the participants, the carvers, and put the whole thing together,” she said.
WATCH: How the Sweet Pea Ice Carving Festival came to be
As Mangione explains, she and her husband first discovered ice carving in 2007 from their neighbors. Their very first piece: an Easter Island head.
“It really struck a chord with us because for the next couple months, it was very cold and every time we drove by the park where this ice Moai was, we saw somebody with their arm around it taking a photo,” said Mangione.
“So, we thought ‘this is what we need to do,’” she said.
Flash forward, Mangione moved to Bozeman and pitched the idea to the Downtown Bozeman Partnership and Sweet Pea.
“They said let’s do some ice,” said Mangione.
Now, the competition is in its 10th year, and it was in full swing on Saturday.
“Today’s going to be a butterfly,” said ice carver Danny Kelley, who has been participating in the competition since it started. “Cutting all these pieces out of the wings right now.”
“This is a chicken. We were going to go with a sideways chicken but because it’s so warm, we decided to go with just the head,” said Suzette Castillo, an ice carver.
Castillo is not the only one who experienced difficulties with Saturday’s 50 degree weather.
“50 degrees is great for the spectators. There’s a lot of people here in the park,” said Steve Mercia, an ice carver. “For the artists, we’d like it about 20 to 30 degrees colder; everything’s melting.”
“It’s melting quite a bit. You can see it starts to crack in spots up here from the rot,” said Kelley.
In fact, sculptures that were built on Friday had already started melting on Saturday (see photo above).
Despite the warm weather, it was a fun-filled competition for the carvers and the community.
“By hosting it in this sculpture garden in January, it brings people out their houses,” said Mangione. “It’s also showcasing that Sweet Pea, we’re not just here in August, we’re here supporting the arts year-round for the community.”
