Somerset for the weekend for the 25th Fire & Ice Festival
You have to love how some Western Pennsylvanians make the most of winter weather.
The people of Somerset — the Somerset County seat along the Pennsylvania Turnpike just more than an hour’s drive east of Pittsburgh — embrace the season this weekend for what is the 25th Fire & Ice Festival.
The fire kicks it off at 6:30 p.m. Friday, when the town’s historic “diamond” gets lit by the fireworks show. “There’s not another place that you’ll see huge fireworks right in the center of town. It’s crazy,” says Regina Coughenour, executive director of Somerset Inc., which sponsors the weekend. She’s on her fourth fest, which she describes as “a lot of cute little charming events.”
The main attraction is that ice, which also will be flying around the diamond, as Mastro Ice’s live ice sculpting demonstrations start Friday night and continue through Saturday. There’s going to be 50 sculptures, many of them re-creations of past favorites, striking the “The Best of 25 Years” theme. The town will be decorated in silver.
New this year is an ice slide, made from 20 blocks of ice, down which children and adults can slide.
No matter how cold (or not) it is, there will be skating on a rink with synthetic ice, set up in front of the National Register of Historic Places county courthouse. Ice skates are available to rent, too.
The Fire & Ice 5K run or walk race starts at 10 a.m. Saturday. And ends at a fire — one of several bonfires that will help warm attendees. One at the Somerset Trust Co. will be used to make s’mores.
Helping warm things up at 3 p.m. Saturday is a chili cook-off to benefit charity, at which visitors can try and vote on 10-plus chili entries and five soup entries.
Try a Fire & Ice anniversary stout, Silver Jubilee, brewed just for the occasion by Whitehorse Brewing in nearby Berlin, available in a beer, wine and spirits area that is indoors this year. Brewer Mike Fahy says the mint chocolate coffee flavors are from the flavored coffee he gets from the Morning Grind Coffee House in Johnstown.
There will be food trucks and a sheltered place to eat their wares in the Somerset Community Plaza. From 7 a.m. to noon on Saturday, the Kiwanis Club holds its allyou-can-eat pancake breakfast.
There’s live music both days, too, and a festival marketplace, Friday through Sunday, in the basement of the historic Newberry Building, which is home to lots of other shops. There’s a children’s center dnd Misty Haven Carriage wagon rides. The Laurel Highlands Model Railroad Club on Main Street will be open and showing off its train display.
What gets you in to most everything for free is the collectible Fire & Ice snowflake pin, which is for sale for $6 at Somerset Inc., the local chamber of commerce and area businesses.
Get a full schedule and all the details at www.somersetinc.org/fireandice.
It’s likely to be colder there than here, in that the town is up in the Laurel Highlands. A local delicacy is maple syrup from the trees in these mountains. You can find that taste on the maple butter and maple hot wings at Tailgatez bar. Find local syrup for sale at several places such as the Summit Diner, a stainless steel landmark with great comfort food.
Ms. Coughenour says visitors can call ahead and arrange to visit a local maple camp — there’s a list at http://somersetcountymaple.org/producers.html — before they get into the heat of their season later this winter.
Other local attractions include the National Park Service’s Flight 93
National Memorial, which is open year-round if the weather isn’t too harsh (www.nps.gov/flni/index.htm), and the Quecreek Mine Rescue Site, where the educational visitors center is closed for the season except by appointment (www.quecreekrescue.org).
Ms. Coughenhour suggests visiting the Somerset Historical Society, the grounds of which are gorgeous even if the museum isn’t open (www.somersethistoricalcenter.org/about-us/planyour-visit.html). Or just take in the winter scenery and activities at natural places such as Kooser and Laurel Hill state parks.
The town is sure to welcome you warmly. The borough police have even stopped enforcing parking meters (though they’ll still give you a ticket if you overstay your welcome in a non-metered two-hour zone, park in a permitonly space or otherwise park illegally).
If ice sculpting is your jam, a similar event, also in the Laurel Highlands but in Westmoreland County, hits the diamond in Ligonier Jan. 25-26 — the 29th annual Ligonier Ice Fest, featuring free concerts, horse-drawn sleigh rides (if there’s snow) and a Firemen’s Famous Spaghetti Dinner. Info at https://ligonier.com/event/ice-fest/2020-01-26. Ligonier also is just more than an hour’s drive east from Pittsburgh.