World Ice Art Championships secures new home

FAIRBANKS — The World Ice Art Championships has a new home.

The ice sculpting event recently reached a 22-year rental agreement with the Tanana Valley State Fair, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported last week.

"This is kind of our forever home," said Bernie Karl, president of the Ice Alaska nonprofit organization that runs the event. "We should have been here to begin with."

The event will be held at the College Road fairgrounds from 2019 to 2040.

"I think we'll grow together with the fair," Karl said. "We have something to offer each other. It's a real synergy."

Under the rental agreement for the ice park, Ice Alaska's rent to the fair association will start at 10 percent of entrance fee income in 2019, increasing by 2 percent every year until it reaches a maximum of 20 percent. It's a lower starting rent than the fair usually charges.

The event also has secured a source and sponsor for ice. The raw material will come from an Exclusive Paving lake near the fairgrounds, Karl said.

Ice Alaska needed a new home for 2019 after separating last year from the former event leaders who own the George Horner Ice Park. The official World Ice Art Championships was canceled last year, although ice park owners Dick and Hoa Brickley used the park for a smaller ice carving event.

The 2019 World Ice Art Championships is scheduled for Feb. 14 to March 31.

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