Surrounded by towering snow castle walls, giant snow slides, and spectacular sculptures, Martin Rehak aka ‘King Marty One Boot’ smiles warmly as visitors stream in. Folks from near and far flocked to the winter wonderland one last time before the snow castle walls are swept away into Yellowknife Bay.
The SnowKing festival ran from March 1 to 28 and drew thousands of people in season 30.
“The festival has been a great success and we’ve had a lot of visitors,” Rehak, the lead builder, told True North FM.
Rehak explained that over the years, the festival has become bigger, more “streamlined” but remains “very much a grassroots kind of festival.” Having more sponsorship over the years means that the festival organizers are able to do more.
The festival may have come to a close but the SnowKing and his team are heading back to the drawing board to plan next year’s build.
Rehak said one possibility being considered for next year’s SnowKing festival is using projection mapping technology and software to “bring the walls to life.
“We always try to make things bigger and better in some way,” said Rehak.
Rehak explained that some traditions will definitely continue, which have been part of the SnowKing festival since its beginnings, like the playground with snow slides, the visitor centre, the Great Hall and the snow sculptures.
Festival founder Anthony Foliot, aka the “SnowKing’ and a talented group of builders and artists worked in a -30 °C environment to construct the massive castle from snow and ice.
It takes roughly 10 people working six hours a day for 60 days, said Rehak.
Thankfully, throughout March this year temperatures kept well under – 0 °C. The castle and the snow carvings stayed intact throughout the month-long festivities
Rehak explained that this year the festival embraced “castles” and “medieval lore.”
Crystal balls made of ice were carved in the newel posts at the main entrance to the castle. Dragons and medieval warriors stood tall outside the castle and crouched in hidden corners within. Gargoyles were carved into the castle’s ice windows and carved into the base of snow columns.
It’s all the little and big details that enchant visitors of all ages.
“It’s amazing what they did in there…the castle…the sculptures…the slides…it was fun…it’s all amazing, just incredibly creative…beautiful, “ exclaimed one group of visitors as they headed out and made their way to the NWT Brewery. They told Truth North FM that they just arrived from Arizona and Washington for their first visit to Yellowknife and the SnowKing.
Stanley Chun and his family arrived from Hawaii just the day before. “We just got here, it’s just something different, Hawaii has no ice,” he explained.
“We heard about the festival and decided to come check it out.”
Habte Michael, a local cab driver who lives in Yellowknife, said he drives about 25 people per day to and from the festival during March. He has been driving visitors to see the SnowKing festival for about 6 years. Micheal said he usually likes to stop and see the snow sculptures and this year he was quite impressed by the snow carvings.
Many of the snow sculptors who participated in the international snow carving symposium come back each year. After the carvings are complete they all take a vote. This year the Artists’ Choice Award went to a snow sculpture titled “The Phoenix” carved by Saskatoon carver Patricia Leguen and Yellowknife stone carver John Sabourin.
The snow carvers arrived a few days early to join the Yellowknife-based team of builders and artists to create the snow carvings inside the castle, explained Rehak.
“I love it, this is my first time being here in all the years that they’ve had the ice castles going,” Laverna Klengenberg told True North FM. Klengenberg is from Ulukhakto, which is nearly 1000 km north of Yellowknife
She said her favourite part of the festival was “just being around everybody, just enjoying people’s company and being around family.”
Klengenberg said she was happy to see many Inukshuks and representations of Indigenous culture and history.
Klengenberg and another visitor pointed out that as the celebration of winter comes to a close, it means spring is on the way.
“The energy of spring, people are out, people are enjoying what our environment and what our culture has to offer all over along with the place,” she said.
“It’s pretty cool, it’s very artistic,” added her son Tobin who said that the mezzanine structure was his favourite feature of the snowcastle.
Yellowknife residents Eddie, Katie and Sidney Johnson come to the SnowKing festival each year. They all agreed they liked this year’s theme of “castle” lore.
“I liked the slides,” said Eddie.
Katie said she had fun performing at the castle with her dance team the Bella Beats earlier this month.
Festival goers were treated to comedy shows, live music, dance, and theatre for all ages.
This year’s performers included the return of the Yellowknives Dene Drummers, a multi-generational group of drummers from the Dettah, Ndilo, and Yellowknife communities.
Gordie MacKeeman and His Rhythm Boys, Flora and the Fireweeds, DJ Tmixxy, DJ BLKFT, Tea Fannie. Carmen Braden were also among the many artists who performed this year.
The Snowking himself told True North FM on Sunday that he was happy with the festival this year. “It was fun,” he said.
