For most of its history, the Lititz Fire & Ice Festival has been about the ice: dozens of carved sculptures lining downtown streets and Lititz Springs Park every February, drawing visitors who walk from block to block in the cold. In 2020, for the festival’s 15th year, the “fire” half got a serious upgrade.
Stray Productions, a Lititz-based production company, built a stage show for the festival with Pyrotek Special Effects, another Lititz business whose concert and television clients had included Taylor Swift, Jennifer Lopez, Bruno Mars and the 60th Grammy Awards. The show combined live flame, fireworks, lasers, smoke, strobes and video, with dancers from the local studio Dance Dynamix performing on stage.
A show behind Lititz Mutual
The performances ran on Friday and Saturday evenings that year in a lot behind the Lititz Mutual Insurance building, close to the heart of downtown. Admission required a minimum $1 donation, with proceeds going to Venture Lititz, the nonprofit that organizes the festival and other downtown events, to help offset the considerable cost of staging the show.
Stray posted a behind-the-scenes teaser on Instagram the week before, and the clip gave many residents their first glimpse of what two companies better known for arena tours could do on a small-town stage.
Lititz as a production town
That a borough of about 9,000 people could put on a pyrotechnic show of that scale says something about the local economy. Lititz is home to Rock Lititz, a campus of rehearsal studios and production companies that opened in 2014 on the edge of town. Some of the biggest concert tours in the world have rehearsed there, and companies tied to the live-event industry, from staging and lighting to special effects, have clustered nearby.
For residents, that industry is mostly out of sight, behind the doors of large studio buildings. Events like the 2020 Fire & Ice show briefly put it on display downtown.
What the festival looks like
The core of Fire & Ice has stayed consistent. Professional carvers produce sculptures from large blocks of ice, many sponsored by local businesses, and the pieces are set out along Main and Broad streets and in Lititz Springs Park. Live carving demonstrations, a chili cook-off and fire pits have been regular features, and downtown restaurants and shops use the weekend to draw visitors through the slowest stretch of the retail year.
The weather always has a vote. A warm spell can soften sculptures within a day, while a deep cold snap keeps them crisp but thins the crowds. Organizers plan around both, and carvers often return to touch up or replace pieces between days.
The festival is also a reliable boost for downtown businesses in a month when few tourists visit. Restaurants add specials, shops stay open later, and visitors who discover Lititz in February often come back in warmer months.
The 2027 festival
Venture Lititz has scheduled the 2027 Lititz Fire & Ice Festival across two weekends: Feb. 12 to 15 and Feb. 18 to 21, 2027. Expanding to two weekends gives visitors more chances to see the ice and spreads the crowds out.
Tips for visiting:
- Go after dark at least once. Many sculptures are lit, and they look completely different at night.
- Dress for standing outside: warm boots, gloves and layers.
- Parking fills early on Saturdays. Arrive in the morning, or try a Thursday or Friday when the festival runs across more days.
- Lititz Borough’s paid street parking through ParkMobile runs 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday on metered blocks.
- Check Venture Lititz’s festival page close to the date for the schedule of carving demonstrations and special events.
For more of what’s happening in town this winter, see Things To Do.