Ice Sculpture Stroll Returns to Boston Waterfront for New Year’s Eve Celebration
Chill out as you count down to 2025. Boston’s New Year’s Eve on the Waterfront returns with an Ice Sculpture Stroll highlighting the artistic frozen works of art hosted by more than 30 businesses and cultural landmarks along Boston’s waterfront.
Ice sculptures are close to transit stations across all major subway lines in the city:
- Courthouse (Silver Line)
- Aquarium (Blue Line)
- Maverick (Blue Line)
- Haymarket (Green/Orange Lines)
- South Station (Red Line)
Visit the MBTA’s website for the New Year’s holiday service schedule.
As a participating business in the Waterfront Ice Sculpture Stroll, the New England Aquarium will unveil an ice sculpture depicting one of the most critically endangered species of sea turtles being cared for at the aquarium’s sea turtle hospital. From 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, visitors can witness the beauty of the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle captured in ice on the Aquarium’s Central Wharf Plaza.
Ice carver Don Chapelle of Brilliant Ice Sculpture in North Andover created the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle sculpture on Sunday, Dec. 29. Chapelle used 35 blocks of ice weighing about 10,500 pounds to make the 14-foot-wide-by-8-foot-tall ice sculpture.
According to a news release from the aquarium, hundreds of cold-stunned sea turtles wash up on the beaches of Cape Cod and are rescued by staff and volunteers from Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary each year. Due to rapidly changing water temperatures and wind patterns, many turtles can’t escape Cape Cod Bay and become hypothermic. They are then transported to the Aquarium’s Sea Turtle Hospital for care.
“It’s a joy every year to create iconic species that the New England Aquarium has devoted its energy and time toward saving and protecting,” Chapelle said in the release.
