Eagan’s Minnesota Ice Festival is now home to the world’s largest ice maze, according to the Guinness World Records organization.
The 18,148.88-square-foot ice maze was certified in its category during a wintry ceremony Friday at TCO Stadium. Minnesota Ice, the business behind the maze and festival, specializes in ice events, ice sculptures and cocktail ice.
The previous record was set in Buffalo, N.Y., where a nearly 13,000-square-foot ice maze was certified in 2010.
A Guinness World Records representative visited Eagan and handed a certificate to Robbie Harrell, founder and CEO of Minnesota Ice, which produces the ice festival. Harrell said Minnesota Ice started constructing the maze on Dec. 1 at TCO Stadium, the practice stadium for the Minnesota Vikings and where the Minnesota Aurora play. To protect the field, they had to lay down gravel and plywood.
The maze was completed on Jan. 4, but the work on the inside was just beginning. Ice carvers created sculptures, and the lights were installed over 24 hours, just before the Guinness World Records visit.
The process to break a record isn’t easy. Harrell said they have to have evidence, without a doubt, that they are the largest.
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“There’s a pretty stringent process for it, you know, you’ve got to get it set up within a certain period of time. It has to stay up for at least 24 hours. And somebody truly does have to get lost in it. So there needs to be an entrance and an exit where the average person would feel they couldn’t just walk right away,” Harrell said. “They take it very seriously. It’s just so crazy to see how much really goes into it.”
The ice maze was canceled last year due to a warm winter, because of that, Minnesota Ice had lots of supplies leftover. They planned the project about 18 months ahead of time.
In addition to the maze, which has 8-foot-high walls, the festival features three ice slides, an international ice sculpting competition and a warming area. Harrell said they hope to run the festival through Feb. 16.
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