When Cardboard Art Goes Sledding
Pictured above is a steamboat made of cardboard. It probably took hours to build — there’s actual steam (or, at least, powdery snow) coming out of the stacks, and in an event, it takes a lot of time to cut, shape, and paint that much cardboard. But the steamboat isn’t going to last much longer; it’s moments away from traversing down a hill in the middle of Minnesota, and ultimately crashing into some bales of hay in front of a hoard of onlookers.
And everyone, including the passengers of this doomed steamboat and the guy in red lying on his chest behind it, is delighted.
The picture above was taken at Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis, a public park in the middle of the state’s biggest city. (Here’s a map of the location.) And specifically, it took place at the Powderhorn Art Sled Rally, an annual-ish event in which local artists and neighborhood families get together in what organizers call “a mass sledding spectacle.” Specifically, they build sometimes elaborate, ridable sculptures out of cardboard and slide down a hill at the park. The official-ish goal is to make it down the entire hill without crashing, but the real goal is the fun by just participating (and yes, even crashing).
The real magic comes from the sleds themselves, which are often elaborate works of art. In 2009, according to Wired, sleds included a 20-sided die, a Star Wars spacecraft, and as seen here, a guy dressed up as Sisyphus pushing his cardboard boulder sled up the hill (and then sliding down it). As the organizers note, “Most sleds are puppies & kitties, boats & spaceships, but occasionally something offbeat-in-content slides down” — and sometimes, it gets very controversial. For example, in the 2024 event, a group of sledders put together a replica of “[the] 3rd [Police] Precinct on fire with a person dressed as a pig inside,” according to Bring Me The News. That creation was a reference to the police building burned in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd.
That said, the vast majority of the sleds are all in good fun. A video from the 2018 event (which includes the steamboat above) featured a boy in a UFO spinning out of control, a carrot, a Tardis, and even a nose and riders dressed up as boogers. (Watch the video, it’s great.) This year’s even had a half-dozen eggs, which ended up scrambled (video here) and a pair of working-ish Rock’em Sock’em Robots, until they wiped out (watch that here).
But what this year’s event lacked was the bales of hay to keep riders safe. In years past, organizers came to the park early to smooth out the snow and put up the hay barriers, but this year, they weren’t able to — officially, they had to cancel the event, according to their website, “due to last minute insurance complications.” That didn’t stop the sledders and their fans, though, who — as seen in this video by Axios — kept the downhill party going in style.
Bonus fact: Sledding can be dangerous, so it isn’t a huge surprise that that Art Sled Rally couldn’t get insurance. But one of the more famous victims of a day of sledding — he’s fictional, don’t worry, this isn’t a sad story — didn’t fall to a sledding injury itself. Casper the Friendly Ghost, the iconic cartoon character, was created in 1945 and has delighted generations of children since (although he’s not all that well known to the younger generations… too bad). Canonically, he died of some sort of illness and probably pneumonia. As ScreenRant explains, “After begging his dad for a sled, he spent all day and night outside in the snow — even though his father asked him to come in.” He fell ill shortly thereafter.
From the Archives: Why Is This Panda Rowing a Giant Pumpkin?: Pumpkins and water, not sleds and snow, but the idea is similar.