The World Ice Art Championships is an ice sculpting contest in Fairbanks, Alaska put on by Ice Alaska, a non-profit corporation started in 1989. The contest is the largest of its kind in the world and attended by more than 100 sculptors from 30 different countries every year. The contest also draws tens of thousands of spectators; in 2004, 48,000 people from more than 28 countries passed through the park's gates.