The village’s 31st consecutive mid-February celebration was commenced Friday night with an opening commencement ceremony that featured the lighting of the ice castle — the first in three years — and the crowning of the festival king and queen.

The ceremony began with the acknowledgment of this year’s ice castle crew, who had the ice castle constructed by Tuesday but then had to employ some ice-saving measures when temperatures climbed into the mid-40s on Wednesday and Thursday. Volunteers spent Thursday morning packing snow up against this year’s ice castle iteration, which contains hundreds of blocks of ice from Chautauqua Lake. The volunteers had to surround the structure with tarps and snow in an attempt to create a refrigerator-like cocoon, which was removed prior to Friday’s ceremony.

“We had a siege on the castle, but the knights did prevail,” said Burl Swanson, who helped with its construction.

A litany of volunteers and groups that assisted with the ice castle’s construction was read, including Swanson, Nick Andriaccio, Scott Dearing, Don Emhardt, Jeff Lang, Ron Miller, John Buxton, Village of Mayville Department of Public Works, Town of Chautauqua Highway Department as well as the businesses that provided lunches during construction.

Jean and Mike Lobaugh, the 2018 festival’s crowned queen and king, are pictured in red robes.

After the acknowledgments and “thank yous” to the castle builders were administered, Mike and Jean Lobaugh were introduced as the 2018 festival’s king and queen. The Lobaughs are members of the Mayville Area Chamber of Commerce, and also own and operate two area bed-and-breakfast businesses: My Blue Haven and Sweet Harmony.

The festival will continue today and Sunday with a variety of indoor and outdoor activities and offerings including contests, food and craft vendors, chainsaw carving and carriage rides. A cold water rescue demo will take place today at 1:30 p.m., followed by a Polar Plunge at 2 p.m., and a fireworks display at 8 p.m.

Also highlighted today will be a pet parade at 4 p.m. and a chili cook-off. All chili entries need to be delivered to the festival tent by 1:30 p.m. and judging will take place from 2-4 p.m. The Veterans Administration Mobile Veteran Center will again be at the festival on Saturday and Sunday during the weekend to assist veterans with information.

Besides all of the events taking place at the park, local businesses and organizations have also planned some specials as well.

For a complete listing of President’s Day Weekend events, or information on participating in them, visit mayvillechautauqua.org find the event on Facebook.