Second Annual Ice Cream Festival attracts thousands

After about half an hour, it became extremely clear what everyone’s objectives were at the second annual El Paso Ice Cream Festival.

“I ce cream,” said Nylah Lewis.

“The ice cream,” said Melody Wright and her son, Tristan.

Spending time with family? Of course. But consuming the sweet treat took priority above all else, especially in the triple digit temperatures.

Wright recently moved to El Paso with her husband, now stationed at Fort Bliss. She said she enjoyed exploring her new town.

“Just getting to see a little bit more of El Paso and things it has to offer for families,” Wright said.

” The sun’s pretty hot,” said Francisco Alvarez. “But with some good ice cream, it helps.”

The festival had a whopping 75 flavors of ice cream — many of them custom to the event — in addition to popsicles and other cold treats.

“A lot of the local creameries are here, and then we have some regional and national creameries that we’ve flown in our product to be able to sell at our festival,” said Ryan Lympus, assistant general manager for El Paso Live.

Some of the ice cream flavors were ordered from as far away as Alaska and New York.

The event was packed with children, who were able to attend for free. Parents had to dish out $12 each. Past and present members of the military were charged $10 to attend.

Lympus said the Cohen Stadium has a capacity of 12,000 people. A couple hours into the event, 1,000 people had already showed up.