Fire & Ice Fest Postponed — Again; Big, Bright Lights Will Get Sendoff

A day after announcing the postponement of Rochester's Fire & Ice Festival by two weeks because of unseasonably warm weather, the Rochester Downtown Development Authority announced on Thursday afternoon that the festival has been postponed once again.

The new dates for the weekend festival will be Feb. 24-26.

The festival, which attracts thousands to experience nighttime fireworks, a tubing hill, ice sculptures and a skating rink, was originally planned for next weekend — Jan. 27-29.

But the weather has not been cooperating: Not only is there not enough snow for the planned winter activities, but DDA Executive Kristi Trevarrow said the weather needs to be below 28 degrees for four days in a row in order for snow machines to make snow. 

On Wednesday, able to see a 10-day forecast without such temperatures, festival organizers postponed the event until Feb. 10-12. After realizing that some festival participants had a conflict with the popular Motown Winter Blast that same weekend in Detroit, the Rochester festival got pushed ahead two more weeks.

The schedule of events and all of the attractions will remain unchanged — it will just be moved to February.

In addition to the outdoor attractions of years' past, this year's Fire & Ice Festival will also feature the McDonald's AGA Downtown Rail Jam, which will bring snowboard and ski clinics and competitions to the festival site. It's all part of the Adrenaline Games Alliance, which targets "adrenaline junkies" to compete for prizes in snowboarding and freestyle skiing.

Big, Bright sendoff

Fire & Ice weekend is typically the last hurrah for the Big, Bright Light Show in downtown Rochester. Trevarrow said the lights will be on as planned Jan. 27 and 28 — and then they will go off for good.