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Fire and Ice Festival at TA Ranch
On Saturday, January 20, a large crowd attended the first Nordic Celebration, called the Fire & Ice Festival at the historic TA Ranch near Buffalo.
Kaitlin Giles, of the TA Ranch, talked about some of the competitions being held at the event.
She added that there were other events in the afternoon, and that they would like to make this an annual festival.
The master of ceremonies, riding her black horse, Star, talked with Sheridan Media.
Along with the games was Tracked Outdoors out of Casper. Larry Rubis talked about his machines and why he came to the event, saying he had always seen the TA Ranch ads and wanted to come up and see the ranch, and decided the festival was a good time to make the trip.
The Buffalo Area Transit System ran buses from town for those wanting to ride.
In the Nordic tradition, the Big Lost Meadery from Gillette sold traditional beer and mead, a fermented honey drink that was popular in medieval times.
Gina Waldon
January 22, 2024 at 12:20 pm
It was an admirable first attempt, bringing to mind the tradition of Up Helly Aa in the Shetland Islands. We got there at 4:30, and there was no food to be found. Selling alcohol without having food available doesn’t seem to be a good idea . . . the mead was tasty, though. We saw many costumes, mostly Viking-type, with a couple of men in tartan. The burning ship was kind of a fizzle; the first arrow went out upon release. Finally a small fire (in a haybale, maybe?) got going. We enjoyed the Pillage People and the Nordic storytelling, although I would suggest a better stage as it was hard to see the activities.