WAUPUN — The Waupun IceFest Committee has given a first look at what this winter might look like for Waupun.
Waupun IceFest is a new event planned to begin this winter, with a variety of indoor and outdoor entertainment across town. The event is scheduled for the weekend of February 17th and 18th. Events on both days start from 10AM and go until 4PM, with displays open into the night.
The IceFest Committee was started and is run by Jeni Maly and Jody Mallas. Maly is an art teacher at Rock River Intermediate and operates Imagine That! Art Studio in downtown Waupun.
“This is my hometown and I’ve always thought, what about more sculptures? What more can we do for the city of sculptures?” Maly said. “It was just an idea to bring ice sculptures to town. We were gonna start out small—we were anticipating like 10 to 20 sculptures—but it went from one day to two days to a big, large event. So we’re hoping to really draw a lot of folks into Waupun and show a good time to locals and outsiders too.”
“Our goal now is 60 local businesses sponsoring ‘Ice Hosts’ to purchase an ice sculpture,” Maly said. “The ice sculptures will be displayed throughout the whole city and they’ll be lit from underneath so you’ll be able to see them during the day and during the evening.”
On top of the ice sculptures, IceFest plans a variety of family and adult events,
Among the proposed children’s events are scavenger hunts, sledding, and extended open rink times. Also planned are horse-drawn carriage rides and city-wide tours similar to Celebrate Waupun.
But two of the more interesting events they’re planning are an art gala at The Rock Golf Club and a live “Fire and Ice” aerial performance at the Hockey Rink.
“This is all tentative,” Maly said. “We haven’t cut the checks yet to make sure that they’re coming, but this will be finalized next week.”
As for funding, IceFest has been working with numerous local organizations to make this event a success. Last July they approached the Waupun City Council with their plans, and are working with local nonprofits and businesses for hosting attractions and events.
“We partnered with local tourism agency Destination Lake Winnebago to help with marketing for this event, and we received $18,000 in tourism marketing money through a JEM grant,” Maly said.
According to Maly, the committee is aiming for 20,000 people to come to Waupun to attend the events.
“We are putting out billboards, magazines, articles, and radio, newspaper non-local and they are taking care of that expense through the JEM grants. So we’ll be putting up billboards in the suburbs of Chicago, Wausau, Madison, Milwaukee, and we’re going to be looking at marketing to Rockford and we are really marketing towards art-in-nature type folks, to come up to see our sculptures,” Maly said.
“I do think that we have a very healthy art community, but a lot of times folks are making art in their own homes privately or in smaller groups amongst our community, but trying to bring them all together,” Maly said.
With the event still on the horizon, the organizers are still looking for ice hosts among local businesses and organizations. Ice hosts aren’t limited to organizations as individuals interested in making a mark on the event can also sponsor an ice sculpture, perhaps for a valentine or tribute to a loved one.
Waupun IceFest can be contacted through the official Facebook page which can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61552113325509
