Community Corner
5K Race, Food Trucks Join This Year's Fire & Ice Festival
Festival runs Jan. 24-26, with inaugural Chill at the Mills 5K joining festivities.
A frigid road race, hot food and cuddly pets will join this year's Fire & Ice Festival in downtown Rochester.
The event, which runs from Jan. 24-26 at E. Third and Water streets in downtown Rochester, will add a food truck rally featuring The Different Twist Pretzel Co., The Rolling Stoves Food Truck, Beignets 2 Go and The Mean Weenie, and pet adoptions from the Oakland County Animal Control.
The inaugural Chill at the Mill 5K road race, which already has roughly 400 runners registered, will kick off the third day of Fire & Ice festivities at 9 a.m. on Sunday, Jan. 26.
The additions join the event's main draws: Ice sculptures, a skating rink, tube sledding, dogsleds, carriage rides and, of course, fireworks on Friday and Saturday nights.
Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, for one, believes the weather will cooperate with the "Ice" portion of the festivities.
"The weather is going to be on our side," Patterson said Wednesday during a preview event for the festival at Rochester Mills Beer Company in Rochester.
In addition to bringing large crowds downtown during a relatively stagnant winter season, Patterson said the event also brings people together.
"It's about family," he said. "It's a family event."
The festival will run 5 p.m.-9 p.m. Friday, Jan. 24; 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 25 and 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 26. Fireworks will cap Friday and Saturday's festivities, beginning at 8 p.m. each night.
The event also will be the last exhibition of the Big, Bright Light Show, which will flip on the million-plus colored lights throughout downtown Rochester one last time from 5 p.m.-midnight each day of the festival.
Shuttle parking for the Fire & Ice Festival is available at the Buffalo Wild Wings Rochester Hills location at 1234 Walton Road, east of Livernois.
Parking and shuttle service to downtown Rochester is free of charge. Shuttles will continuously run between Buffalo Wild Wings and downtown Rochester. The designated pick-up and drop-off location in downtown Rochester will be at E. Fourth and East Street.
Find out what's happening in Rochester-Rochester Hillswith free, real-time updates from Patch.
- Friday, Jan. 24: Shuttle begins at 6 p.m. Last pick-up in downtown Rochester at 9 p.m.
- Saturday, Jan. 25: Shuttle begins at 10 a.m. Last pick-up in downtown Rochester at 9 p.m.
- Sunday, Jan. 26: Shuttle begins at 10 a.m. Last pick-up in downtown Rochester at 4 p.m.
Note: We erroneously had the wrong date of the Chill at the Mills 5K race in an earlier version of the story. The race is on Sunday, Jan. 26, as stated in the current version of the story. We apologize for any inconvenience.
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