After the last year’s break Fire and Ice Festival returns to Canandaigua

Canandaigua, New York — The Fire and Ice Festival has returned to downtown Canandaigua after being canceled last year due to the COVID pandemic.

This year brings a mix of new and old attractions, like the popular ice carving station.

As a group of sculptures carved different shapes into large blocks of ice, crowds gathered to watch.

“At the common stage, there’s fire shows and stilt walkers,” festival organizer Denise Chaapel said. “Lining the street, we bring out winter animals. So, we have reindeers from Shortsville Reindeer Farm. We have alpacas.”

According to organizers, it wasn’t anything they couldn’t handle, after Saturday brought the cold and the wind.

“We’ve had everything from hail to rain to 60 degrees,” Chaapel said. “You never know what the weather will look like”.

Organizers really wanted to focus on getting families out to enjoy it this year, after last year’s cancelation.

“It’s a great way to see all the local stores,” Chaapel said. “We have over 100 mom and pop shops downtown. When someone gets cold they can just pop in a shop and experience it.”