Construction at Snowking’s Castle is going Smooth as Ice

After well over a month of work, construction on Yellowknife’s beloved Ice Castle is progressing at a steady pace, and with little interruption.

As the opening day for the 30^th Annual Snowking Winter Festival approaches once again, the crew has begun offering guided tours of the construction site. While there is still much work to be done, what has been built so far is no less impressive.

This year, the Foreman of the castle’s construction is Martin Rehak, also known as “Marty 1-Boot.” It has been his job this season to plan out the construction and make sure all team members know what they are doing and when to do it. He was kind enough to share some updates on how progress has been going.

“We’re beyond the halfway point of the build season. We always start on January 1^st, and we build until the last day of February, and this year the opening day will be on March 1^st. In that first half, before we get beyond the backstage and the Great Hall, and start going into the courtyard, it always seems like everything is taking so long, and you just can’t tell whether your on the right track or not, but in the end, now that we’ve made it over the hump, the Great Hall is closed, and we’re going into the courtyard. Everything’s good!”

Marty added that this year, they are bringing back a feature that was only introduced last year, that being a mezzanine in the Great Hall. He explained that the feature was quite popular with the public, so they decided to have it return for this year’s festival. However, due to the complicated nature of the structure, Marty feels that they may forgo it’s inclusion next time around.

Also returning to the Castle this year will be the Great Hall, ice slides, playgrounds, the Visitor’s Centre, and the large courtyard for the public to gather.

When asked about any events the Castle has planned that he’s looking forward to, Marty’s answer was simple.

“I’m just looking forward to opening day! That’s always a special time! For me personally, you spend two months working on this. You spend every day just breathing, eating, living the Castle, and then when it finally opens, it’s out of your hands, and it belongs to the public. It’s great to see all those smiling faces coming in. So I look forward to that!”

Tickets for the 30^th Snowking Winter Festival are available now, and can be found on the official Snowking website.