More than 37 tons of ice will be transformed into dozens and dozens of sculptures for this weekend’s Hunter Ice Festival in Niles.

Lisa Croteau, program manager for the Niles Main Street, the organization that puts on the event, said they’ve received more sponsorships for ice sculptures than ever before.

That is good news for the thousands of people expected to attend the annual event, which is scheduled to run Friday through Sunday in the downtown area.

“We have been very blessed this year with phenomenal sponsorship,” Croteau said. “There will be more ice this year than we’ve ever had in previous years by probably six or seven tons of ice.”

The ice was delivered by semi truck Monday to a parking lot at the corner of Front and Main Streets, where the blocks were unloaded by the pallet-full onto the snow-covered blacktop.

Although the majority of the sponsored sculptures have already been carved, Croteau said a team of professional ice carvers would spend the rest of the week finishing some of the more interactive and larger pieces.

The finished products are scheduled to be placed around downtown late Friday night.

“They have a lot of really fun stuff planned,” Croteau said.

People can watch the carvers work beginning today at the corner of Main and Front streets.

This year’s carvers are Burr Rasmussen, Reverend Butter, Dean DeMarais, Aaric Kendall and Niles’ own Danny Bloss.

Croteau said they were scheduled to arrive Monday evening.