Robbie Harrell’s dreams of setting a record for the world’s largest ice maze melted with last winter’s unseasonably warm weather. Cancelling the event just days before it was scheduled to open in January 2024 cost his company, Minnesota Ice, upwards of $1 million—enough that you might think he’d stick to ice cubes.
Not Harrell. He decided to go bigger for 2025. He spent months planning, strategizing, and obsessively monitoring weather forecasts. “There’s no way we’re having that kind of warm winter again,” he said. This week, Harrell pulled double shifts alongside his team out at TCO Stadium in Eagan where The Minnesota Ice Festival opens Friday for what is intended to be a six-week run, if the weather continues to cooperate. Friday’s forecasted high: an ice-friendly 25 degrees.
“We put so much time and energy into this last year, I just couldn’t let it fall by the wayside,” Harrell said. “There’s some pride here. Business isn’t always about dollars. It comes down to relationships, and how you get people to remember your brand.”
That enterprising attitude is nothing new for Harrell, the same guy who flew in ice carvers from around the country to deliver 200 Super Bowl ice sculptures in 2018 when his business was barely launched and he had no slush fund. Today, he runs a $10 million operation with 50 to 70 employees, depending on seasonal needs for both ice sculptures and ice cubes. Clear cocktail cubes are the company’s biggest money maker, Harrell said.
“We’re at the point where I know that even if the ice festival turns out to be a very, very expensive party, it’s nothing we can’t recover from,” Harrell said. But he believes it is possible to turn a profit on a winter experience. Tickets for The Minnesota Ice Festival are $24.99 for adults. In addition to the 18,000-square-foot maze, the event includes food trucks, an ice carving competition, and prizes.
“We’re really trying to turn it into a winter playground,” Harrell said.
He’s not the only one. Several ice attractions will open around the Twin Cities this weekend, including Ice Castles at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds and The Ice Palace in Delano.
Last winter, The Ice Palace opened for just four days, after weeks of efforts to build and rebuild as the temperature soared past 50 degrees. Its owners, the Youngstrom family, ended up selling a wedding venue they own near their homes in Idaho to cover their debt from last year’s flop.
“We hired a CFO who was like, ‘What are you doing?’ and our business coach asked the same thing, and urged us to consider quitting,” said Ice Palace CEO Kira Martin. “We just believe in it so, so much. We all have this feeling deep inside of us that this is going to be something big.”
The Ice Palace is scheduled to be open Thursday through Sunday through early March, or as long as conditions allow. Like the Ice Fest, palace tickets are $24 for adults and admission includes performances, sledding hills, tunnels and food vendors. Season tickets are available as well. CEO Martin’s goal is to hit 50,000 visitors.
“Winters can be long and people want to buy experiences; not just things,” said Martin, who feels “pretty good” about the January forecast, despite a warm December. The family, which builds log homes in Idaho, got inspired to try ice palaces and hopes to add additional cities in the coming winters if they can make the Delano location an success.
While acknowledging there are less risky businesses than ice palaces, Martin said, “I’d never discourage anyone from trying it, if they believe in it.”
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