The ACE was an excellent way to show how making art out of snow and ice could be accomplished with more than just hands and large snowballs. Because of this, it was decided to host a contest of making artistic snow sculptures, with a $10,000 prize for the most creative overall, but there were other categories, such as mixed media, theme, and classic snowman meet modern era.
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Not all snow sculptures were standing up, either due to complexity or intention. Such was the intention of one UNLV art student's rendition of "Vitruvian Man". While most uplifted Animalians were confused about it, the student was able to explain Leonardo da Vinci's intention.
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Another thing that was done was "Snow Architecture", even though that wasn't officially judged until near of the ACE. Using the snow blocks from the trenches, as well as special shaping tools ranging from simple hammer and chisel to heat torches commonly used in cooking, famous structures from around the world were created, from the famous Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, to Dubai's Dynamic Tower.
One Architecture college student managed to create a giant maze entirely out of snow blocks, which he called the Maze of Inevitable Despair. He also opened it to uplifted Animalians to try to complete it in the shortest possible time to win a free dinner at the Winter Feast. While most managed to complete it in under ten minutes, due to unfamiliarity with the concept of mazes, Jack Piper managed to complete it and win the prize in only four minutes and 37 seconds. One bull Animalian managed to complete it in only 30 seconds, but he was disqualified because he simply smashed straight through the walls.
"Excuse me, sir." said the student after the bull Animalian made it to the other side, "Not that you'd understand the geometry in such an endeavor, but that isn't how you go 'through' a maze."
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One area was completely cordoned/walled off because many of the snow sculptures were considered not appropriate for people under the age of 19. One visiting British tourist mentioned, in appreciation of such limitation, that "films that children under the age of 16 aren't allowed to see by themselves are often called A-Films, at least after WWII."
Because of that, there were often security guards requesting IDs at the entrance to the area, and because many underage people tried to get in with false IDs, there were often many funny incidents that were recorded on camera.
"Your group seem rather short for 19 year olds." said one Bull Animalian bouncer, seemingly not impressed at one group of minors.
"We didn't eat our vegetables. It stunted our growth." said one person in that group, while another backed it up with "No cauliflower for us."
"Can I see your IDs?" asked the bouncer, his facial expression reading as 'I am not amused OR impressed.' for those who could read it.
"Sure, here." said another person in that group, handing a small stack of cards to him.
"All your cards are held in one batch?" asked the bouncer, his facial expression unchanged as he read each one.
"We just got them." said yet another member of the group.
"One of these says just McLovin." said the Bouncer, "Because of that, you all fail." At that, a snowmaking machine hidden in a large piece of snow sculpture was remotely turned on to full blast, spraying the now-confirmed juveniles with a lot of snow and knocking them over. As the group wandered dazedly off, the bouncer called after them in a fake British accent, "Don't come back again wearing long trousers. I've met that sort before. Gluing carpet to your underarms will just make your situation worse."
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Ironically, the winner of the overall competition was a nine-year-old boy who managed to steal the entire competition with a surprisingly effective display. It showed several snowmen protesting global warming with picket signs with saying like "Our kind will go extinct in a mere 20 years!". When a reporter from CNN headline news asked the kid where he got the idea from, the kid mentioned a Calvin and Hobbes comic where the snowmen were protesting Calvin's dad.
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With only two days until Christmas, the start of the Snow Sculpture contest was an excellent way to start the nonviolent parts of the festivities.