January 27, 2012 | Categories: Crowd Control

Despite the unseasonably warm weather most of the United States has seen this past winter, the 30th annual Plymouth Ice Festival resumed last weekend in Plymouth, Michigan - a town about 30 miles west of Detroit. Each year, thousands of onlookers gather to watch ice sculptors use their chainsaws to create majestic works of ice art - ranging from mythical beasts to bald eagles to robots. Apparently, there was a very large turnout - a call for crowd control. Metallic safety barricades were installed to block off the crowds from the artists.

"I can't believe the crowds. You can hardly move," David Martin, a spectator who was there with his wife Elaine. The couple had not attended the event in over 10 years, and were pleasantly surprised when they arrived. Elaine, herself an artist, admired the talents of the sculptors. "I love the artistic part of it. I just find it fascinating," she told the Observer & Eccentric.

It was estimated that over 100,000 people showed up for last year's event, and that a similar number also attended last weekend, the news source reports.