(Feb. 8, 2015) 2015 brought 16 teams from nine countries – five from the United States – to compete in Breckenridge’s 25th annual Budweiser International Snow Sculpture competition. Teams of four artists create amazing, short-lived works of art. using only hand tools. No power tools, internal supports or colorants are allowed. Some teams lacking a lot of snow, practice in sand.
The snow sculpting competition started in the late 70’s as part of the town’s Ullr Fest, (a celebration of the mythical Norse god of snow held each January). Team Breckenridge later competed in the Colorado Snow Sculpture Championships. Twenty-five years ago, the town of Breckenridge to hosted the first international competition.
Letters of invitation are sent to over 200 applicants. Teams submit drawings, sketches or small models and themes to a committee who selects the participants. The town uses clean, manmade snow that is blown into forms. Volunteers climb in to help pack the snow that forms the 12 ton blocks that are used.
After a shotgun start on Tuesday, the teams have 65 hours to create their masterpieces. Friday night anything goes and teams can work all night if they choose. Many teams choose to put on their finishing touches when the snow will be frozen and easier to sculpt and has less time to melt or collapse.
Visitors stop by to see daily changes to the three dimensional sculptures. Spotlights are added for nighttime viewing and photos differ with the weather conditions and lighting. After the judging, colorful lights are added.. Blue skies and black nights offer good contrast to the white snow. Sculptures blend in on cloudy, snowy days make it more difficult to see the intricate details that the artists have done.
Weather can dramatically impact the sculptures. If it snows, teams try to keep snow from sticking to sculptures that are meant to be smooth; if the weather is warm, some fragile sculptures have collapsed before judging, others go on to win and then collapse after judging. 2015 was a warm week, with many teams in t-shirts on sunny days. Most teams either used shades or chose to work late Friday night to keep smooth appearance on their art. The experienced teams waited until Friday night to do finish work to have a crisp, smooth appearance for Saturday 10am judging.
Judging is done at 10am Saturday. A panel of 5 judges selects the winners, based on technical skills, creativity, expressive impact, and adherence to original decision submitted. The People’s Choice is decided by $1 votes by spectators, with funds going to help support the competition expenses. Kids get to vote with crayons on their ballots for their favorite pieces. There are no monetary prices – just bragging rights.
Winners are announced at 2pm, giving the competitors, many of whom worked all night, a chance to take a nap (or ski). Gold went to Team Lithuania for “The Wind of Eternal Change”, Silver to Team Germany, Agrawal.- “Yantra” and Bronze to Team USA/Minnesota for the “Tempest”. The artists choice went to Team Mongolia-Tserendash “On the Way to the Dream”. The People’s choice and kids choice will be announced later in the viewing week. Sculptures remain on display for a week after the competition.
Story and photos submitted bytravel writer Kathy Irwin of Heath for publication in Blue Ribbon News.
To share your good news and events, email editor@BlueRibbonNews.com.
Please click here to LIKE our Facebook page, so we can reach more people with good news like this!
What can you do with 20-ton, 12-ft tall blocks of snow? added by Editor on
View all posts by Editor →