Perfect weather for Hunter Ice Festival in Niles

NILES, Mich. --- The drop in temperatures this weekend will be good for one thing; the Hunter Ice Festival! The festival runs through Sunday in Downtown Niles.

Aaric Kendall, an ice carver at the festival, said the conditions for this year’s festival are ideal.

“Anything below 25 degrees, the suns UV rays don’t have as much effect on the ice so we love it when it’s 25 or below,” Kendall said.

Friday night’s snow is expected to turn to rain tomorrow morning. While the snow is not a problem for the ice sculptures, the rain does complicate things.

“Tomorrow morning is gonna get a little dicey with some rain but we are going to cover the sculptures with some clear plastic bags so everything should be fine and we should be able to kick back off looks like around noon and get going,” Lisa Croteau said, the program manager for Downtown Niles.

After the slight warm up expected tomorrow morning, Croteau said it should be smooth sailing through the rest of the weekend.

“It’s wonderful to be able to have an ice festival when it’s cold enough to keep ice.”

If the Hunter Ice Festival is in your Saturday plans, Croteau said the safest bet is to wait it out until at least noon to see all the ice sculptures.