guests in parkas walk through a full-sized ice building at the Gaylord Texan ICE! display.
updated 8/18/23, mostly with tweaks, a retitle, and seo
"ICE!" at the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine, TX
For the second year in a row, I was able to go to see “ICE!” at the Gaylord Texan. The Gaylord hotel properties run ice display events at their properties in Dallas, Orlando, and Nashville. (Actually, now they also have Baltimore and Colorado properties too.)
If you haven’t been to one of the large tent display events in the U.S. or Europe, you’re missing out. Visitors usually walk along a path lined with extravagant ice and sometimes snow sculptures that are attractively lit. The tents are kept cold with massive portable refrigeration units; the Gaylord events are at 9 degrees F. I’ve worked on several events in Europe and I’ve been very impressed with the Gaylord events here.
The events in Europe (constructed by inaxi and others) have better clear ice, but the Gaylord events use a lot of colored ice. Some carvings are made completely from combinations of colored ice, others mix clear, colored, and white ice. I’d heard that blocks from Grocer’s Ice in Kentucky were used, and that looked to be right at the Gaylord Texan event as the clear blocks were not Clinebell type and had a slight core.
an ice tunnel at Gaylord Texan ICE! offered a cool passage between sections of the display.
In some cases, such as the walls and floor, the sculpting was a bit rough. For the human and animal figures, however, the artistry was very impressive. I’d speculate that within the Harbin carving teams, there are various levels of ability. Less experienced carvers would work on the walls and floor, while carvings that required more skill would be saved for the master carvers.
I’d like to thank Dean DeMaris for taking us to this year’s display. I had travelled to the Dallas area for a competition that Dean put on. The only thing I was disappointed about was that there wasn’t much at the Gaylord Texan display that was different from last year. But it was still worth the time. If I get a chance, I’ll visit the other two events and see how different they are. (I’ve since been to many other Gaylord ICE! displays, and they definitely got even better!)
a Texan Santa wished guests a final “Happy Holidays!” as you left ICE! at the Gaylord Texan.
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