Like many of those who walked downtown Friday and Saturday, Darla Jones won’t ever look at a piece of ice the same way again.

“It’s absolutely incredible what they can do,” Jones said Saturday during the second day of IceFest 2013. “You look at the finished product and it’s hard to imagine that it started as a block of ice.”

Every other year, Hamilton hosts IceFest, a two-day event that turns downturn into part icebox, part sculpture. Despite the 50-degree temperatures Saturday afternoon, the wind that whipped through downtown had thousands of spectators bundled up.

Few seemed to mind.

“It’s supposed to be cold,” Jones, 34, of Fairfield, said.

“It’s called ‘IceFest’ for a reason,” added her friend, Kim Johnson, 36, of Hamilton. “We don’t want the ice to melt.”

Main Street was lined with 88 sculptures, said Tim Naab, director of the event. There were a few puddles of water, but Naab said the carvings were holding up well. There were sculptures of Hamilton and national landmarks, and others dedicated to major sponsors of the event.

He said there were seven professional ice carvers and three teams from Oakland (Mich.) Community College. On Saturday, about 10 carvers, working in tents, demonstrated how they could turn ice into a figure by using a chain saw, an iron and a bucket of water.

Naab said between 7,000 to 8,000 people attended the event Friday night and he expected there were at least that many Saturday. He said numerous Hamilton businesses reported “brisk sales” and he said the occupancy rate at the Courtyard Hamilton downtown was 70 percent for the weekend.

While Shawn Stidham, director of sales at the Courtyard, said he couldn’t disclose sales figures, he said IceFest creates a “very positive impact” at the hotel and throughout the city. He said “Fire & Ice,” a ticketed event Friday, drew about 200 people to watch live ice carvings.

He described Saturday’s lunch crowd as “very heavy.”

He said the hotel guests were from numerous neighboring states.

Scott Jones, shift coordinator at Pappa Luigi’s, a downtown pizza restaurant, said business was triple what it typically is on a Friday and Saturday.

“It’s been very good for us,” he said Saturday afternoon.

Proceeds from the event help defray the cost of the sculptures in the city, Naab said. The sculptures, he said, help make Hamilton “a destination” in the state.

IceFest, now in its eighth year, also featured an amateur photo contest, ArtFest, BookFest at Ryan’s Tavern, a soap-carving competition and a history tour of the city.