Cedarburg makes adjustments to Winter Festival due to warm weather

 

CEDARBURG, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Warmer weather has challenged the organizers of Cedarburg's Winter Festival for a second year in a row. Ice sculptures on display along Washington Avenue are so far holding up. Last year, the sun took them down fast.

"Sunday last year it was I think 60 degrees, so you know all the ice sculptures melted," said Patrick Curran, Festivals of Cedarburg Executive Director.

It is the 49th annual Cedarburg Winter Festival. This year it has an 80's theme. This is event organizer Patrick Curran, sporting a mullet.

"We've seen a lot of costumes, 80's theme wear and attire. It's been a wonderful weekend so far," said Curran.

This dance part made for a fun Saturday night. It's the Totally Tubular 80s Bash.

Curran says with an unseasonably warm February, organizers decided to make some changes ahead of the event, to be prepared.

"Our bed races that typically take place on the ice but this year they were on the street because of the winter that we've been having. You know luckily, we got snow earlier on this week. So, we had a little bit of snow for Winter Festival," said Curran.

Curran says the festival's an important one because business can slow down after the holidays. This brings shoppers back to Cedarburg's historic downtown. A total of 19 ice sculptures are now outside those businesses.

"There's a guy holding a boom box and a break dancer. There's a break dancer," said Curran.

Curran's hoping colder temps overnight will keep them mostly intact, so people can continue to admire them this week.

"We had yeah, a couple brick phones, MTV logo, we had ET. there's ET out there. Depends on what they are. My experience, the more detailed ones do not. But if it's, we have a couple of brick phones because you know 80s theme, so the brick phones will probably stick around for a couple extra days because of their size and the shape," said Curran.

Up next for Cedarburg, it's the Strawberry Festival in June.