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Plymouth Ice Festival
Page 10
Three decades of ‘cool’
History of Plymouth Ice Festival includes familiar names
Thanks to a television show, hard
working public officials and a little
luck, the City of Plymouth has an event
that has continued for 30 years.
“For the festival to last more than
25 years, it must be worth something,”
said Scott Lorenz, the founder of the
original Plymouth Ice Festival, in an
2009 interview .
In 1982, Lorenz came up with the
idea to have an annual winter celebra-
tion in Kellogg Park. He received
inspiration for the event when he
watched a 60 Minutes feature story on
a snow and ice festival in Sapporo,
Japan.
Lorenz looked at his television in
awe as he saw thousands flock to view
the huge images of buildings and car-
toon characters carved from ice and
snow. He decided that Plymouth
needed something similar.
“If they could do this in Sapporo, I
knew we could do this in Plymouth,”
said Lorenz. He said he wanted to cre-
ate an event to bring commerce to
downtown merchants and restaurants
during the slow retail period after the
holidays. Through the years, the Ice
Festival has grown in popularity and
brings thousands of people from
across the globe to Plymouth every
January. The crowd this year may hit
100,000, according to an estimate from
ExecutiveProducer SamWalton.
Lorenz said the purpose of the
event was to bring the community a
fun and unique event while providing
local retailers and restaurant owners a
“much needed shot in the arm” during
the slowmonths in sales after the holi-
days.
Lorenz is recognized international-
ly for his work with the festival.
During his tenure as ice festival boss,
he made several trips to Japan and
Canada to recruit artists and teachers
to participate in the ice carving exhibi-
tion. He also worked out many agree-
ments that exist today, including a
relationship with local culinary col-
leges to have their students exhibit
during the show.
While Lorenz said if he had a dime
for every person the event brought in
to Plymouth, he'd be rich enough to
“go on a beach in Miami sipping mar-
garitas,” others deserve recognition
for their hardwork and service.
After Lorenz received his epiphany
about having an ice festival in
Plymouth, he looked for volunteers
and sponsors. The first two men he
told about his idea were his father,
Ralph, who owned the Mayflower
Hotel and Hank Graper, the city man-
ager at the time.
While the elder Lorenz thought his
son's idea was crazy, Graper talked to
downtown businesses and secured
$1,000 in early donations. With that
money and lots of walking and talking,
the duo hosted their first ice festival
45-days after Lorenz saw the 60
Minutes feature.
With Lorenz as the leader of the
event and Graper working behind the
scenes, the script for success lasted for
more than 10 years.
Current CityManager Paul Sincock,
who worked as assistant manager
Scott Lorenz