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Plymouth Ice Festival
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Even the man who began the
Plymouth Ice Festival is impressed
that it has lasted more than three
decades.
The event beganmore than 30 years
ago thanks to a television show, hard
working public officials and a little
luck.
In 1982, Scott Lorenz came up with
the idea to have an annual winter cele-
bration in Kellogg Park. He received
inspiration for the event when he
watched a 60 Minutes feature story on
a snow and ice festival in Sapporo,
Japan.
Lorenz looked at his television in
awe as he saw thousands flock to view
the huge images of buildings and car-
toon characters carved from ice and
snow. He decided that Plymouth need-
ed something similar.
“If they could do this in Sapporo, I
knew we could do this in Plymouth,”
said Lorenz in an interview several
years ago. He said he wanted to create
an event to bring commerce to down-
town merchants and restaurants dur-
ing the slow retail period after the holi-
days. Through the years, the Ice
Festival has grown in popularity and
brings thousands of people fromacross
the globe to Plymouth every January.
The crowd this year may hit 100,000,
according to an estimate from
ExecutiveProducer SamWalton.
Lorenz said the purpose of the
event was to bring the community a fun
and unique event while providing local
retailers and restaurant owners a
“much needed shot in the arm” during
the slowmonths in sales after the holi-
days.
Lorenz is recognized internationally
for his work with the festival. During
his tenure as ice festival boss, he made
several trips to Japan and Canada to
recruit artists and teachers to partici-
pate in the ice carving exhibition. He
also worked out many agreements that
exist today, including a relationship
with local culinary colleges to have
their students exhibit during the show.
While Lorenz said if he had a dime
for every person the event brought in
to Plymouth, he'd be rich enough to “go
See
History,
page 10
Ice age
31-year-old festival continues to evolve with community