Construction has officially begun on Yellowknife’s Snowking Ice Castle!
The castle will be coming back to Yellowknife for the 28th annual Snowking Winter Festival. We were able to speak with Antje, better known as Schneeflocke, the Festival Director for Snowking’s Winter Festival, who provided the first update for how things are going.
“So the crew met, as usual, on January 1st, signed their contracts, and work started on the second. They have started to pull the beetles out and make the archways, their building walls together to build the pour boxes, getting all the snow blocks ready in the quarry, and things are happening! Tools are ready, and everyone’s ready to build a castle!”
When the world-famous Castle opens its doors on March 1 for its 28th year down on the shores of Houseboat Bay, we will also see international carvers work their magic in the Snow Carving Symposium, along with the highly anticipated Ice Slides created by King Joe Snow himself. Snowking and his team of frosty ice experts have already been harvesting some of the 400 ice blocks needed for the Castle’s windows, steps, and slides.
The layout of the castle had to change in the last few years to account for COVID restrictions, and Schneeflocke explained that another layout change will be coming to this year’s castle.
“This year wil be very different again. We won’t go bigger this year, but we’re gonna bring back the great hall, which will be awesome. It means a smaller courtyard, but lots of live events and performances in a cozy Great Hall again that people know from pre-COVID years.”
Schneeflocke added that some of the live entertainment will include the International Snowcarving Symposium, which will see teams from across Canada and the US.
This year’s event will also feature the return of The King of the Hill Raffle. Participants can purchase tickets leading up to the event, and will be slowly eliminated over time until only one ticket remains.
