Friday is the final day of sculpting for the artists in the 2016 Illinois Snow Sculpting Contest, and teams were hard at work bringing their works to fruition.
Designs this year are mostly fanciful, with the occasional more-serious work. The official competitors are complemented bay an array of high school teams.
Spectators were not in short supply, as a fairly steady stream of cars wended through Sinnissippi Park on North Second Street in Rockford.
Beginning with a six-feet-square, ten-feet-tall block of man-made snow, the artists are sawing, chopping, shaking and smoothing their designs in preparation for judging Saturday morning and the awards ceremony at 1 p.m.