Saturday was cold and windy, so I put on extra socks before heading out to the Knickerbocker Ice Festival, an annual event held at Rockland Lake State Park. Rockland Lake was the source of ice for some of the early ice houses in the 1840s, and Knickerbocker Ice was the king of the industry back then.
Both of the major sculptures were boat replicas. The Clermont was the first commercially successful steamboat and ran on the Hudson River.
The Half Moon was the ship that Henry Hudson sailed on to explore the Hudson River in the 1600s.
Here's an old photo of the actual Half Moon encased in ice!
Bonfires were scattered around to keep people warm.
For those that needed even more warming, they had a band playing - Duchess Di and the Distractions. I only caught the end of their set, but it was jumpin'!
This was my first time visiting an ice festival. But I'd read about them in books. One of our favorite picture books is Pigaroons written and illustrated by Arthur Geisert.
It tells the story of The River Keepers, a sect of "good pigs" whose block of ice for the festival was stolen by the evil Pigaroons, and the River Keeper's ingenious method of retaliation.
Look at Squirrel's Nyack Daily Snapshot blog for some more cool photos of the festival and Nyack in general!
Both of the major sculptures were boat replicas. The Clermont was the first commercially successful steamboat and ran on the Hudson River.
The Half Moon was the ship that Henry Hudson sailed on to explore the Hudson River in the 1600s.
Here's an old photo of the actual Half Moon encased in ice!
Bonfires were scattered around to keep people warm.
For those that needed even more warming, they had a band playing - Duchess Di and the Distractions. I only caught the end of their set, but it was jumpin'!
This was my first time visiting an ice festival. But I'd read about them in books. One of our favorite picture books is Pigaroons written and illustrated by Arthur Geisert.
It tells the story of The River Keepers, a sect of "good pigs" whose block of ice for the festival was stolen by the evil Pigaroons, and the River Keeper's ingenious method of retaliation.
Look at Squirrel's Nyack Daily Snapshot blog for some more cool photos of the festival and Nyack in general!
7 comments:
I love festivals, even icy ones!
Nice to have something to celebrate the ice, as it is so much a part of your lives up there in the frigid northeast! Cool ship sculptures, and thanks for the kids' book tip!
Wow, those are amazing sculptures. The ships look a little ghost-like. If this cold winter continues, they'll be sailing on for quite awhile!
These are as cool as the can sculptures. Looks pretty cold but fun:)
This the ice festival on GMA? Too cool! Glad you enjoyed my little people. Mostly they are given to GW.
What a delightful book. I have seen documentary type shows where they harvest the ice and it is so interesting. A lot of thought and skill goes in to those sculptures. Your joy for life and the details is one of the the things I love about coming to see you:)
Actually, even though I'm ready for winter to end, an Ice Festival sounds fun. Loved the images of the ice sculptures!
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