Snowking Winter Festival XXIX
8th International Snow Carving Symposium
Peoples’ Choice Award
The Snowking Winter Festival is pleased to announce the winner of its 2024 Peoples’ Choice Award. The award goes to Team Ukraine/USA, and its sculpture entitled “Vortex Flower.” Team Ukraine/USA is captained by Bogdan Kutseyvich of Kiev, Ukraine, along with team members Adam Warmack of Detroit, Michigan and Dave Rothstein of Northampton, Massachusetts.
The 8th International Snow Carving Symposium featured nine snow sculpting teams, carving 10’ x 10’ x 10’ cubes of Yellowknife Bay snow, from March 1-3, 2024. Carvers came from Germany, France, Ukraine and various points in the USA, as well as five Canadian provinces and two territories.
Visitors to the sculpture site throughout the March-long Snowking Winter Festival were invited to cast their ballots for their favorite carving. Those votes were then compiled to determine the winner. 259 votes were cast, with Team Ukraine/USA receiving 99. Team Gaspesie from Gaspe, Quebec, ranked second.
evening shots of the finished carvings
WE HAVE A WINNER OF THE ARTIST’S CHOICE AWARD, VOTED BY THE SNOW CARVERS THEMSELVES
WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW AND A BIG CONGRATULATIONS TO Y2Y!
A BIG THANK YOU TO THE SNOW CARVING SYMPOSIUM SPONSORS:
The 8th Annual Snow Carving Symposium is here. Meet the symposium participants:
“If you choose not to find joy in the snow, you will have less joy in your life but still the same amount of snow”
March 1-3, 2024
We are very excited to welcome international, national and local teams to each transform a large cube of the world’s best snow into beautiful sculptures on the ice of Yellowknife Bay!
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attention carvers
Applications to the snow carving symposium are now closed.
Stay tuned for our announcement of participating teams.
For further information, please email snowcarving@snowking.ca
Conditions for participating
The Snow Carving Symposium, organised by Snowking’s Winter Festival Society, will be held March 1-3, 2024.
The symposium is open to teams of three adults.
In 2024, the Festival will not determine a theme, leaving the design of the sculpture open to the teams’ wildest imagination and design abilities!
The sculptures must be made of snow, with minimal amounts of ice, and may not extend beyond the volume of the original cube of snow. Teams will be provided with a snow scoop to move snow, one ‘lift’ of scaffolding with two platforms (1.5 m high), and various larger tools (such as ladders) to share. Power tools are not permitted. Colouring the snow is not permitted.
The 10x10x10 ft (3m x 3m x 3m) blocks of snow will be assigned to the competitors by lottery draw prior to the start of sculpting.
Two prizes will be awarded: Peoples’ Choice – voted by visitors to the Snow Castle during the entire Snowkings’ Winter Festival, announced at the castle’s closing ceremony and Artists' Choice – voted by snow carving competitors and the Castle’s carving team. This will be announced and awarded at the end of the symposium.
Most meals and hospitality will be provided, and a small per diem will be provided to cover additional expenses. A welcome reception and a wrap-up dinner will be provided by the Festival.
The costs of travel (to a maximum of $2,250 per team) and lodging (from February 29 – March 4, 2024) for national and international teams are sustained by the Festival. If teams must stay longer due to flight availability, they must apply to the organiser for compensation for additional cost, prior to committing to the cost. If participants choose to extend their visit to take in the many attractions of a Yellowknife March, that is at their own expense. Extras such as telephone and bar etc. are not refunded.
Preliminary schedule (all times Mountain):
- Carvers’ arrival in Yellowknife – February 29, 2024 by 1800 MT
- Welcome Reception – February 29, 2024 @ 1900 MT
- Carving days – March 1 – 3, 2024, 0900 – 2100 MT
- Artists’ Choice Award announcement – March 3, 2024 @ 1600 MT
- Closing Banquet – March 3, 2024 @ 1900 MT
- Artist Departures – March 4, 2024
Local teams will receive an honorarium for the creation of their sculpture.