Romantic festival puts fun back into winter for the 3 rd year running The annual ‘Fire & Ice’ Valentines Festival will be taking place in downtown Putnam, Connecticut on February 14th & 15th, 2014. This year’s festival will feature over 20 ice sculptures, romantic horse-drawn carriage rides, live music, luminarias, art displays, fire pits, exquisite dining at downtown restaurants, ice sculpture contests, live ice carving demonstrations, and more!
The idea behind the ‘Fire & Ice’ Festival was to create an event which would give the people of Putnam and the Northeast Corner something to do during the typically quieter winter months, and at the same time, bolster traffic for the downtown businesses. The festival has been successful on both counts, and has taken on a life of its own. In 2013, encouraged by the modest success of previous years, Putnam decided to take the event up a notch. Horse-drawn carriages were brought in by Cedar Knoll Farm, and professional ice carving demonstrations were performed by area ice company Ice Matters. Local artists also pitched in, lending their skills to transforming 300 pound blocks of ice in to works of art. During the course of the day, several thousand people passed through the downtown to participate in the festivities.
This year, the scope of the festival has once again grown; instead of a one day event, there will be activities on both Friday night ( 4pm – 10pm), and Saturday (10am to 9pm). There are already over 20 confirmed ice sculptures, two ice carving demonstrations, and 5 carriages scheduled to participate.