11th Annual Driggs Snowscapes brings thousands to Driggs Plaza

DRIGGS, Idaho (KIFI)- The Third week of January filled the Driggs Plaza in front of city hall, with snow sculptures that would take over 30 tons of snow to make with 9 teams of snow carvers and on those teams 25 of the individuals were professionals. All of this took place during the 11th annual snowscapes competition.

The 9 different sculptures took inspiration from different sources and as such were able to create a level of detail to set their creations apart. Saturday people had a chance to celebrate the artists week of hard work and vote for their favorites.

"I'd say 25 pro sculptors over 1500 hours since Monday afternoon and many, many volunteers help with their sculptures as well. So it went really well. It came quickly. We're excited. Lots of people here are voting for their favorite people's and kids choice," said Fallon Ryan the Development and Community engagement manager for the Downtown Driggs association.

Partaking in voting and the scene of the different sculptures the work is very much appreciated. "Well, you can see that people are put a lot of work into it and it's kind of fun to see the creativity that's been going on," said Patrick Jones.

"Before I moved here to Driggs, I lived in Minnesota, and we would go north up to Canada and go ice fishing. So I did a lot of ice fishing. So I have a respect for the the fine art of ice fishing and catching lots of trout and walleye and crappie and perch up in Canada. So great memories of doing that," said Chris Dart.

Jones saids he would spend the rest of the afternoon taking in the art, and "definitely voting" for his favorite sculpture before the day was out.

Dart added that he visited the plaza Tuesday and saw the sculpting process, and were amazed at how the artists were able to get the details imprinted on the snow. "It's like just amazing the different tools they have. And to watch the artistry happen of how they piece different pieces together and add maybe water to some of the snow to make it stick in certain places. It's definitely there's a skill there and they're artists."

One of the many artists behind the Ice Fisherman Sculpture, Mary Mulaney says it took a while to make the idea a reality. "We have a team captain whose name is Rich Brown, and he designed the ice fisherman. And his idea was to have kind of two worlds, the sort of light and flowy world of the fish underneath and then the solid, icy world up above where the ice fisherman is fishing and try to like, emulate those feelings through the negative spaces in the bottom and all the fish flying around."

Mulaney was one of the organizers behind the first snowscapes and having been on both sides of the event has a unique look into how everything works together. "It's just a lot of moving parts and the endurance comes in for both of those jobs. Yeah, it's quite grueling being the sculptor in the cold for four days by being the organizer, it's also equally grueling."

Organizers are excited to bring the snowscapes event back next year as well, they say the sculptures will stay in the plaza found in front of town hall at 60 South Main Street, for as long as they are safe to stay up.

Fallon Ryan a representative of the Downtown Driggs association, says if people want to support Downtown Driggs and help them continue to bring art and other events to the area, you can support them and their efforts through their website here.