As the backhoe gently lifted the 400-pound block of ice above a gap in the tower, retired bricklayer Dick Kentzelman could see it was a bit too big for the space. He grabbed a long-handled tool that looked like a steel spork and with a few well-placed chops, the block slid home.

All around him in Rice Park, volunteers from the St. Paul Building and Construction Trades were moving, lifting, cutting, chopping and stacking more than 1,500 blocks of ice in preparation for Thursday’s kickoff of the 131st St. Paul Winter Carnival. There will be a mini ice palace, an ice bar and even an ice-framed music stage. It might not be the 25,000-block palace anticipated to coincide with next year’s Super Bowl, but Kentzelman and his volunteer co-workers hustled just the same.

“I love being a part of this,” Kentzelman said, pointing to crewmates Tom McCarthy, Dean Gale and Jeff Huberty.

Rice Park is center stage for the 2017 Winter Carnival, featuring live music, ice carvings, outdoor happy hours and even a family fun day. The State Fairgrounds will host events as well, including a Snow Park Polar Plunge to benefit Special Olympics. In all, 60 events will fill the carnival’s 10 days, Jan. 26 through Feb. 5. Last year, an estimated 250,000 people attended carnival events.

Like parades? The Moon Glow Pedestrian Parade will get things rolling Thursday, starting at 6 p.m. at the Securian Building. The McDonald’s King Boreas “Grand Mac” Day Parade will start at 2 p.m. Saturday. And the Vulcan Victory Torchlight Parade will start at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 4.

Fans of ice carving should get to the park Thursday evening to Saturday evening if they want to see ice chips fly as carvings take shape, said Rosanne Bump, festival president and CEO.

Greg Schmotzer of Hastings will be there. The banquet chef at Treasure Island Casino started ice-carving at the Winter Carnival in 2000 and has captured 11 first-place awards. In the multi-block contest, he is carving a 10-foot unicorn in front of a wall of fire — without any help. In the single block, with his son, Schmotzer is carving a phoenix. “If you win, it’s $2,000,” he said. “So it’s a big deal.”

The annual overthrow of King Boreas by the Vulcan Krewe will be acted out Feb. 4 among nine ice towers in Rice Park built by McCarthy, president of the St. Paul Building and Construction Trades, and about 50 other volunteers.

It will take many more than that to raise the palace anticipated in 2018 for the Super Bowl, Bump and McCarthy acknowledged.

McCarthy said his volunteers are eager for the challenge. “When they ask us to come out and lend a hand, we want to lend a hand,” he said.