COOL AS ICE

Aqua Freeze festival revived for this weekend; features food truck, sculptures, music and more

Aqua Freeze has been revived after a two-year absence with a renewed focus on fun family activities.

Aqua Freeze is a weekend festival held at Blossom Heath and Wahby Park that will feature food trucks, live music, a petting zoo and ice sculptures.

Organizers say a renewed interest in Blossom Heath Park and moving the event up from February to the first winter event of the new year were the key factors in the festival’s revival.

“St. Clair Shores hasn’t hosted an Aqua Freeze in two years,” said Henry Bowman, the city’s parks and recreation director. “Now with Blossom Heath activities has become such a home run, we want more and more things going on there.”

Located behind Wahby Park on Jefferson Avenue, south of 10 Mile Road, Blossom Heath was home to the Tunnel of Lights event held during the Christmas holidays. That was one of the events that convinced city officials to aim more parks programming there.

The old festival focused on ice sculpture but organizers dis

covered gradually warming temperatures in Michigan rendered the sculptures undependable as an attraction.

Climate change has disrupted winter festivals in the Great Lakes State as the planet continues to see warming temperatures, caused in part by greenhouse emissions. The days of snowy winter days with temperatures below freezing are becoming a thing of the past.

Bowman simply borrowed a page from his other outdoor event playbooks and used what has made them successful.

“We get so much life out there because people enjoy getting bundled up and they come by to use our fire pits and don’t mind being out there. It’s perfect event that is only enhanced through our family entertainment,” he said.

Aqua Freeze runs noon-9 p.m. Saturday and noon- 6 p.m. Sunday with horsedrawn carriage rides, food trucks, ice sculptures, a petting zoo, craft beer tent, games, hot chocolate and fire pits.

The weather looks like it will cooperate. After peaking to about 40 degrees on Wednesday and Thursday, there’s a chance of snow on Friday, according to the National Weather Service. For Saturday-Sunday look for mostly cloudy skies with a high near 32 degrees.

For more information, visit facebook.com/st.clairshoresparksandrecreation

DAVE ANGELL — FOR THE MACOMB DAILY Henry Bowman erects a plastic igloo that is used to provide shelter for event-goers to eat in.

MACOMB DAILY FILE PHOTO A man jumps into a canal off Lake St. Clair at a past Aqua Freeze festival in St. Clair Shores. It is currently not known if this event will return for this year’s festival, given coronavirus concerns.