The 2018 St. Paul Winter Carnival kicked off in dramatic fashion Thursday night with the much-anticipated lighting of a 70-foot ice palace in Rice Park, followed by a brief fusillade of fireworks as Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy” played.
Prior to the ceremony, visitors and dignitaries walked down Sixth Street, luminaries in hand to light the way, in the Moon Glow Pedestrian Parade.
Other high points included carnival princesses being bounced in the air and, in a weird twist, a walleye suspended within one of the ice palace’s building blocks for attendees to gawk at.
I tell my kid and her cousins they'll end up like the Girl in the Fountain if they don't behave. They're like, "serves her right..." #Toughgirls
It was 1885 when a New York City newspaper reporter declared St. Paul "uninhabitable." Thank you New York -- the St. Paul Winter Carnival was born! 132 years going strong! #EcolabIcePalace #IcePalace
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