By Siobhan Stewart, Howard University News Service

FREDERICK, MD — About an hour outside of Washington, D.C, a charming city hosts community events every first Saturday of the month. This past Saturday, Visit Frederick hosted “Fire in Ice” in downtown Frederick, Maryland.

This annual event brings out thousands of people from around the tri-state area to downtown Frederick’s Market Street and Carroll Creek. The event had ice sculptures, an ice bar on the creek, ice thrones, fire pits, fire performances and more.

Stores and companies of Frederick were paired with ice artists to create unique sculptures that relate to their business. Terry Winder, the owner of the Pasta Palette, said that plans for the sculptures are made as early as the fall. She asked for her design to represent the iconic spaghetti scene of Disney’s “Lady and the Tramp”.

Lindsay Harne and Kelsey Swann are two long-time friends from high school. Both were attending “Fire in Ice” for the first time.

“I’m surprised how many people are here, it’s awesome that people are coming out to Frederick,” Swann said.

People of all ages posed for pictures by the sculptures and admired the work.

Downtown Frederick is s usually fairly quiet area but was bustling all day and night during the event. Teddy Galloway, who lives and works in Downtown Frederick, said the festival crowd was the biggest he has ever seen during the winter in Frederick: “ [Fire In Ice] brought out a lot of people my age and younger, which I did not expect at all.”

Paige Galloway, a long-time Frederick resident, enjoyed the puns of the sculptures the most. “What makes it even more fun are the sayings in front of them. So one was a squirrel and it said Phil couldn’t make it, like Groundhog Day’s Punxsutawney Phil.”

Though the weather was cold, the spirit was warm as families and friends enjoyed this festival.