If you’re searching for something fun, exciting and free to do this weekend, make sure you check out the Loveland Fire & Festival, the nation’s largest Valentine’s Day festival. Celebrating its fourth year in 2018, this annual celebration in downtown Loveland, Colorado — which is nicknamed “Sweetheart City”— will be on Friday, February 9 from 5 to 10 p.m. and Saturday, February 10 and Sunday, February 11 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
The festival, located at 200 East 4th Street in Loveland, has grown to reach more than 40,000 attendees and is appealing to visitors from across Colorado, the US and nationwide through new community partnerships. Inspired by Disneyland’s Main Street USA light and fireworks show, as well as Montréal En Lumière, the Loveland Fire & Ice Festival is designed to be quite the spectacle.
Highlighting a schedule filled with “fire, ice, entertainment and fun,” the Loveland Fire & Ice Festival offers something for the whole family and makes a romantic date night for couples looking to do something a little more unique than just dinner and a movie.
This year, festival organizer Blazen Illuminations, LLC, has launched a new Fire Sculpture People’s Choice Competition that involves local artists creating their own “fire masterpieces” to be displayed throughout the festival. You can vote for your favorite work, and also vote for your favorite ice sculptures lit up with colored lights carved by nationally renowned ice sculptors. The winner will also be awarded a People’s Choice Award.
The festival will also feature free live music and performances, a fireworks show with music and lights, drinks from local brewers and distillers, a family fair with carnival rides, face painting and games, romantic carriage rides, a vintage emergency vehicle show featuring old firetrucks, a food truck court and marketplace with local artisan businesses.
“The Loveland Fire & Ice Festival has grown to be a ‘must attend’ Valentine’s Day celebration. Our guests can look forward to enjoying some of their favorite experiences while exploring exciting new attractions celebrating artists and community,” Nate Webb, owner of Blazen Illuminations, said.
The festival will also celebratd February’s American Hearth Month and has partnered with Northern Colorado’s Heart Safe Community to place automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in public gathering spots as part of a community effort to educate citizens on sudden cardiac arrest.
You really don’t want to miss the many lovely things happening in downtown Loveland this year. The Fire & Ice Festival has returned and we couldn’t be more excited.
For more information and for a full schedule of events, visit the festival’s website. All photos courtesy of Loveland Fire & Ice Festival.
