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DOWAGIAC — Hundreds of visitors descended on downtown Dowagiac for its 26th annual Ice Time Festival on Saturday.
The event featured dozens of expertly carved ice sculptures from carvers that were placed around the downtown for people to view.

Children’s crafts and activities were hosted by Bow Wow Bakery and Bath, Dowagiac History Museum, Dowagiac Library, Salted Words, Venue 132, and Caruso’s Candy and Soda Shop.

The Chili Crawl allowed guests to try tasty creations from participating restaurants including Oak & Ash BBQ, The Baker’s Rhapsody, Cass County Council on Aging/Front Street Crossing, The Eagles Lodge, Woodfire Trattoria and the Wounded Minnow Saloon.

Event-goers taking in the sculptures were able to shop to their heart’s content at many downtown businesses that were open during the festival. Outdoor winter activities for families were featured throughout the day and participating specialty shops hosted Out of Hibernation Sales.

The Dowagiac Fire Department hosted a s’mores tent where guests could create the tasty treats using a fire department-supervised fire. Dowagiac Public Safety Department Assistant Michell Outlaw was impressed with the festival turnout.

“We had people lining up as we were setting up,” she said. “It’s been a great event. I think people were excited to get out and enjoy an event like this.”

Twenty corporate sponsors joined with the Greater Dowagiac Chamber of Commerce, the festival’s host organization, to put on this year’s event.

Single block ice sponsors include Ascension Borgess Hospital, The Baker’s Rhapsody, Cass County Council on Aging, Creative Foam, Cross Excavating, Deck the Halls, Dowagiac Area History Museum, Eckman Chiropractic, Hale’s Hardware and Harding’s Friendly Market. 

Also sponsoring single-block sculptures will be LADD, Mennel Milling Co. of Michigan, Olympia Books, Preferred Printing, Rosy Tomorrows, StayDowagiac.com, Symonds Machine, True’s Towing, Vincent J. Jewelers, and Vylonis Contracting. 

Corporate underwriters of the festival were Dowagiac Credit Union, Dowsett Chiropractic, Garage Doors Plus More, 1st Source Bank, Lyons Industries and Who Knew? Consignment.

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