DAVENPORT, Iowa — The cold weather put a freeze to Davenport's annual ice sculpture event, but not the sculpting.
Icestravaganza 2024 was supposed to kick off on Friday, Jan. 12 but was cancelled due to forecasted extreme weather. That didn't stop artists from completing their work.
On Thursday, Jan. 11, crews were still chipping away at ice, making over a dozen pieces to display at the storefronts near Freight House Farmer's Market.
One of those artists was Terry Reis, who's been sculpting for about 40 years and even created works for some feature films. "This is a great event — I really liked it. This is my first year up here," he said.
Reis helped the team put together new ideas for the 2024 Icestravaganza, including a special whale sculpture. "Trying to do interactive pieces for kids so they could sit and get a picture op going," he said.
The sculptors wanted to finish the job so the community could still enjoy the art.
"Bring it all into one spot here, it's a little bit more guarded with the buildings for wind and cold," Reis said.
Bringing the sculptures to the Freight House storefronts had a purpose. "Earlier in the day, these shop owners had a semi trailer truck full of groceries show up anticipating all the crowds this weekend. And unfortunately, it's gonna be all too dangerous for everybody to get out here and eat and buy all that stuff," event organizer and sculptor Matthew Meadows said.
Meadows wanted to help the businesses avoid a chilling loss of revenue. "Hopefully if everything's clear later on in next week, everybody when it's safe will come out and and still enjoy them," he said.
Meadows has put together Icestravaganza for 10 years and is grateful for support from the City of Davenport and the Downtown Davenport Partnership. "We started with six [ice] blocks, and now we're at 120 blocks, so that's pretty good," he said. "Get people down here, see what the Quad Cities has to offer. And yeah, it's really awesome."
Artists said the sculptures should last through the end of January if the weather stays cold enough.
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