Special events businesses struggling through the pandemic

“It’s both of our paychecks, our retirement money. If everything tanks? We’re really worried.”

VIRGINIA BEACH — For more than 30 years, Andrea Latham and her husband, Steve, have owned an ice sculpture business.

Ever attended a large convention, holiday party, baby shower or wedding with a massive frozen work of art anywhere in the commonwealth? Chances are that sculpture came from the Lathams’ Virginia Beach warehouse.

Called Ice Art, it’s the only business in Virginia that provides such sculptures. The couple used to have a few competitors scattered throughout the state, Andrea Latham said, but the 2008 economic crash wiped them all out.

Ice Art barely survived.

“After that, it probably took us two years or more to get back up to where we were before the crash,” she said. “It was really a struggle.”

Now, more than halfway through the disastrous year that 2020 has been, the coronavirus pandemic threatens to liquidate the Lathams’ life work.

They’re not alone.

The uncertainty of the pandemic has rattled the entertainment and events industry. At least three other Virginia Beach businesses that have produced and celebrated birthdays, weddings, promotions and holidays with the community, all for at least 30 years, are questioning how they’ll make it to 2021.

When Gov. Ralph Northam mandated quarantines and limits on crowd sizes in mid-March, the

KAITLIN MCKEOWN/STAFF Steve Latham, owner and president of Ice Art, says the ice sculpting company has seen a substantial decrease in business in recent months. — Andrea Latham, co-owner of Ice Art with her husband, Steve.