Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship, in partnership with Vermont Public
Great Ice is a winter festival on North Hero’s frozen City Bay. It’s been around for 18 years, and for the past several years it’s happened during Presidents’ Day weekend.
Great Ice is three days of winter activities: ice skating, trekking across the frozen lake from North Hero to Knight Island, snow-building competitions, a bonfire and fireworks and even ice safety demonstrations.
Andy Julow is in charge of media and finance for the festival. He says Bob Camp founded the festival in 2007, back when Camp was running the North Hero general store Hero’s Welcome.
Camp “got tired of looking out his window all February with nothing going on,” Julow said. “And so he started this festival to bring people up.”
Julow is from South Hero and he says he’s been on the islands “pretty much his whole life.” He was recruited to work with Great Ice by Camp a few years after the festival’s beginning.
“I was a hockey player and (Camp) had a pick up hockey game going, and so he got me to captain that event, and I got sucked in deeper from there,” Julow said.
It’s easy to see why. Friends and family of all ages are gathered on the frozen bay, tying up each other’s skates and smiling as they help each other stay upright on the ice.
Nick Lane was pulling two kids in a sled around the ice rink. He lives in South Hero and he’s a big fan of Great Ice.
“I don’t know if I could pick a favorite part,” he said. “I love all the demonstrations, I love the food and wine village, the bonfire. The kickoff last night was huge. I love this — being here during the day with my family skating. I think the whole thing is my favorite.”
Great Ice keeps growing every year. Julow says they are “victims of their own success” because the village doesn’t always have the infrastructure, like parking, for the amount of people it attracts.
Still, Julow says he wants Great Ice to continue to be an event people want to attend.
“We want to keep it something that people who live here are proud of,” he said. “I think this is an older community, and it’s great for me to see grandparents out there with their grandkids and their kids bringing them into North Hero and enjoying the village.”