The chainsaws and chisels fire up kicking off Richmond’s 6th annual Meltdown Winter Ice Festival January 22nd - 27th, 2019. This event turns downtown Richmond into a wondrous destination where custom ice carvings, impressive ice competitions, lively winter activities, and fun collide – and it’s all FREE. 

Watch the ice fly as each internationally known, multi-award winning ice artists use their polished skills, imagination and passion to create an array of ice sculptures. Meet the internationally renowned artists and pose with more than 35 stunning creations. During the festival, over 22 tons of ice will be intricately designed and sculpted into works of art. Each block of ice is approximately 4’ wide by 18” thick and weights nearly 300 lbs.At the Family Fun Zone, is an interactive ice park with various sculptures masterfully crafted entirely from ice, such as corn hole, ping pong, mini golf, skee-ball, a slide and more. Other activities include a frozen fairy trail, paint and take souvenir, chili cook-off, frosty mug pub crawl, art show, food vendors and more.

The main event is the no holds barred “Meltdown Throwdown” sculpting competitions between ice carvers and 1200 lbs. of ice. Ice sculptures will remain on display, weather permitting.