Icy Lights: A Premiere Winter Block Party

On Friday, March 1st, Fireman Creative and the Oakland Business Improvement District (OBID) shut down Oakland Avenue and Sennott Street to present The Icy Lights Winter Block Party, an outdoor celebration held under a cascade of lights featuring street curling, ice carving, live music, and frosty drinks courtesy of IC Light.

University of Pittsburgh Police Officers and three-time National Curling Champions, Alexander and Nicholas Visnich competed in Oakland’s first Street Curling match and taught attendees how to street curl. The two main curling events featured a duel between Lake Raystown Resort’s mascot, Smoree, and Eat ‘n’ Park’s mascot, Smiley. Next, Iceburgh from the Pittsburgh Penguins and Roc from the Pitt Panthers faced off. Throughout the evening, guests had the chance to compete against their family and friends.

After photo ops with the mascots, guests watched live ice carving demos. Blocks of ice were transformed into an incredibly detailed dragon, a guitar, snowflakes and more. The carved Icy Lights selfie booth was a huge hit. As attendees enjoyed the activities and mingled, music kept their souls warm with live performances by Pittsburgh band, Shaq Nicholson, and DJ Preslav Lefteroff. On the hour, OBID announced prize giveaways which included tickets to Phipps Botanical Garden, Carnegie Museum, and Professional Curling Lessons from the Visnich brothers.

Fireman Creative and OBID thank the following sponsors for helping to make this cool event a flaming success. UPMC, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Innovation District, Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, IC Light, Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, Maggie’s Farms Rum and media sponsors, WESA, WYEP, and NextPittsburgh.