Jan. 21—SHIPSHEWANA — For the ninth year, Smokehouse Grills and Supply hosted the Ice Festival Chili Cookoff in downtown Shipshewana Saturday morning and early afternoon.

“The crowds are definitely up, and I think we’ve seen a lot of foot traffic today,” said Smokehouse owner Rich Stoltzfus shortly after 11 a.m., when an estimated 50 people had shown up, many still sampling chili from a total of 11 cooks who took part.

The event began in 2015, but Stoltzfus said cold weather prompted moving the event inside three years ago, when the shop location on Morton Street opened.

After trying samples, guests could also take part in a people’s choice vote for their favorite brand of chili.

“They tasted and then they drop them in,” Stoltzfus said of the voting ballot process, estimating that last year’s event brought in about 300 ticket sales. “We just try to create an event that brings people out in the cold months.”

Bill and Ruth Dameron made the two and a half hour drive from Coldwater, Ohio, to sample event chili.

“For the last four or five years we’ve always come to the ice festival here,” Bill Dameron said, adding that they were staying at the Brethren Retreat Cottages. “Been doing that for about 15 years.”

Levi King has run the Shipshewana Ice Festival for 17 years.

“I think we need a bigger room,” he said at about 11:30 a.m. as the crowd continued to grow.

As guests sampled chili inside, ice carvers out back behind the store were hard at work carving various ice sculptures. A total of 12 carvers took part in the festival, with six competing on Saturday.

Four men are needed, typically, to move one of the ice blocks that gets carved into a sculpture.

“These ice blocks are 800 pounds,” King said about the work that goes into the process.

Dennis Berkey, who works at Smokehouse, served as master of ceremonies for the event. He emphasized that for the cookoff, guests were voting on the chili, not on the cooks, and that Saturday had a “perfect temperature” for the outdoor ice carving.

“Some years it’s too warm and the ice melts,” he said.

Next year’s festival will take place Jan. 17-18, 2025. To learn more about this year’s event, visit visitshipshewana.org/events/ice-festival-chili-cookoff.

Steve Wilson is news editor for The Goshen News. You can reach him at steve.wilson@goshennews.com.