Expanded ice castle poised to be one of Edmonton’s hottest tickets
The Hawrelak Park ice castle has been upsized in its second year, and promises to be bigger and better than before.
“It’s 50 per cent bigger I’d say, at least,” said Brent Christensen, founder of and designer with Utahbased Ice Castles. “It’s going to be spectacular.” The company built its first ice castle in Edmonton last year, one of about 15 that have been constructed across North America, where workers use sprinklers to spray freezing water that trickles down to create free-form spires of icicles.
At night, the ice is illuminated, bathing the ice castle in an ethereal glow.
“Once they come in through the entrance, they are surrounded in a place where they feel like they have never been before,” said Christensen. “We like them to come here and feel like they have been transported to a different realm.”
The castle will feature two sideby-side slides that are even longer than last year, one of the biggest tunnelling areas the company has made, a functioning fountain and a throne room.
New this year, workers are creating a ramp that winds around the exterior of the castle, allowing visitors to climb up and see the entire structure.
“People have always wanted to see what we see from the top. (They’re) going to be able to look down and see how large the structure really is,” said Cory Livingood, site manager and lead artisan behind Edmonton’s ice castle.
Livingood said about 100 sprinklers were being run nearly around the clock since the beginning of December to build the structure, with up to 25 workers shaping the castle per day.
Chris Caputo, manager of distribution services for Epcor, said last year’s ice castle took 46,000 cubic metres of water to construct and maintain, but with the added size this year, and, should the cold weather hold, a longer season, Caputo expects this year’s ice castle to require far more.
To put it into perspective, the average home uses about 10 cubic metres of water in a month.
Once it melts, the water is dechlorinated in a catch basin before slowly working its way back into the North Saskatchewan River.
Ice Castles’ Edmonton debut in 2015 attracted record attendance, support Christensen hopes will help turn Ice Castles’ partnership with the City of Edmonton and the Silver Skate Festival into “into something long term.”
That’s big news for the Silver Skate festival, as the ice castle provides sustainable funding for the otherwise free winter festival.
“What they’ve created here is probably one of the largest pieces of public art in the city right now,” said Erin DiLoreto, festival executive producer. “It’s been a welcome addition to our winter scene and to our winter festival.”
Edmonton’s ice castle is expected to open Dec. 30, and will run until March, weather permitting, or whenever spring temperatures overwhelm the massive ice structure.
For more information, including tickets, go to the Ice Castles website.
The Silver Skate Festival — featuring snow sculpting, speedskating competitions, a themed folk walk and a three-on-three pond hockey tournament in partnership with the Canadian Progress Club — runs in Hawrelak Park from Feb. 10 to 20.