In 2006, Isungset invited other musicians to perform with him at the first Ice Music Festival. He brought in professional ice carvers, like Bill Covitz, to help make more-complicated instruments than Isungset could create on his own. Covitz, who’s based in Connecticut, has worked on the festival almost every year since. During that time, he’s carved just about every type of instrument, from a tiny kazoo and a curvy guitar to a 1.8 meter (6 foot)-long horn, out of ice.
Preparations for the festival begin about a week before the first performance. Using large saws, workers cut giant blocks of ice from frozen lakes surrounding Finse. They hoist the blocks into trucks that carry them to the festival site. Each block weighs about 1,600 kilograms (3,500 pounds)—almost as much as a small car.