LEWISBURG --- Just as the weather starts to warm up a bit, Lewisburg is cooling things down again with some ice.
This ice carver had an audience as he chipped away at a giant ice sculpture at Hufnagle Park in Lewisburg.
"I'm very much impressed with it. First of all it takes endurance just to do the work with the weather factor," Clay Henry said.
"It's gorgeous. I can't imagine how they got it in here and with him carving it stays stable and doesn't fall over," Peggy Henry said.
The 11th annual Heart of Lewisburg Ice Festival is in full swing. This sculpture is just one of more than 30 ice sculptures on display in downtown Lewisburg. It takes several hours to carve a sculpture this size.
Leona Yekel brought her granddaughters to check it out.
"It's just very neat to watch. I just wanted them to see how they cut them," Yekel said.
The ice festival is not only about ice sculptures. There are also chocolate tasting tours, a chili cook-off, the Frosty 5K and the coldest event of all, the Polar Bear Plunge.
"Some folks are worried because there is ice in the river but the Union County emergency squad who handles the safety for us says the water is the perfect condition for the polar bear plunge," Linda Sterling said.
Some of the stores on Market Street stay open late during the ice festival and offer a 15% discount to shoppers. The ice festival is expected to bring hundreds of people to Lewisburg.
"They're used to going to the bigger cities for shopping and so forth. It is nice to have people come in and see what a nice town Lewisburg is," Denise Gulliver said.
The Heart of Lewisburg Ice Festival runs through Saturday evening.