About the Snowkings’ Winter Festival

In the winter of 1992/93, The Snowking, Anthony Foliot and his neighbour, Scott Mitchell (Sir Shiverin’ Sam), built a snow fort for their kids in the eclectic Woodyard neighbourhood in Yellowknife’s Old Town.

The following year, dubbed Snowcastle I, they moved to the nearby ice of Yellowknife Bay, piling snow with a front-end loader and cutting it by hand into building blocks.

Over the years it attracted more neighbours and curious friends to join in the fun and challenge of a unique volunteer community project. The Castle has since then taken on a life of its own, hosting events and performances and earning its reputation as the city’s premier winter attraction for thousands of locals and visitors.

Today’s Castle is a wonder of creativity and ingenuity as its construction techniques and artistic craft have evolved. It has generated financial and in-kind support from over 50 Yellowknife businesses along with our City, Territorial and Federal governments. It has stayed true to its founders’ original vision: a vibrant celebration of winter, a showcase of Northern creativity and performance that welcomes the young and young at heart. 

Soon after the waters of Yellowknife Bay on Great Slave Lake freeze, usually by late November, a specialized team ventures carefully onto the new ice. Wielding enormous vintage logging and ice cutting saws and aided by the awesome motorized FrankenSaw, they cut at least 400 ice blocks between 20 and 30 centimetres thick for the Castle’s windows and other ornamental features.

Design and planning of the main castle takes place in the months leading up to Christmas. The real work begins in full force on New Year’s Day, when all the crew, some paid and some volunteer, meet to toast the New Year and kick off a marathon of hectic non-stop activity. Their creation rises from the lake in eight short weeks before the Castle gate opens for the month-long festival in March.

Time is of the essence, and the fearless 10-person crews work longer hours as daylight hours slowly increase into late January and February.  Temperatures and windchills can bottom out to -40 degrees Celsius while the crews battle the elements.  It’s hard on equipment and bodies, but there’s no time to spare!

To build the meter-thick castle walls, a Bobcat snow blower is used to channel snow into custom-made plywood forms three meters high – a method that replaced the snow blocks of old since 2004. Pour-boys and girls bravely stand inside the forms, levelling and stomping the blown snow as the Bobcat’s blizzard swirls around them.

Collapsible forms called “beetles” are placed inside the walls before they are poured, leaving beautiful arched doorways and passages.  After the walls are up, the snow carving team starts adorning the snowy walls and crystal-clear ice windows with intricate details and flourishes. Visitors can take a guided construction tour several afternoons a week from late January to the end of February.

Inside the castle walls is a beautiful open-air courtyard with tunnels, secret rooms and passageways, and the thrilling ice slides for kids of all ages. The courtyard is adorned with beautiful sculptures, hand-crafted from ice and snow.

In the hexagonal Visitor Centre, patrons can warm up, learn more about the festival and buy unusual Snowking swag. Passing through another entranceway, into the covered courtyard, reveals The Great Hall, where the coolest stage in Canada welcomes crowds on weekends and select evenings to celebrate the end of winter and enjoy live performances from local and visiting artists.

The festival opens to the public six days a week, noon to 5 p.m., over four weeks of play, music, snow sculptures, theatre, film and other art performances with programming targeting all ages, particularly families.

The Festival takes pride in its community roots and welcomes local groups and individuals to showcase their creative talents.

The 2025 (XXX) Festival welcomed more than 15,000 visitors, coordinated 10 large evening programs and 25 daytime performances over 26 days, plus special children’s activities each weekend.

This year, XXXI will mark the 10th Anniversary of the Snowkings’ Interstellar Snow Sculpting Symposium. Teams from the North, Canada and around the world create breathtaking works of art from three metre-square blocks of the best carving snow in the world outside the castle walls. Each team has four days to complete its masterpiece, and visitors are welcome to watch them at work.

The sculpture gallery, beautifully lit at night, remains open for free for the duration of the festival. No prize money is awarded. Instead, teams vie for two highly coveted awards: Artisan’s Choice, voted on by all competing teams, and Public Choice, by ballot during the entire month of March.

We are grateful to the many organizations, public and private, who believe in us and contribute money and services to the festival each year. They are all listed under the Sponsors section of the website. The festival’s budget for 2025/26 will top $550,000, including the many in-kind services generously donated by local companies.

The breakdown of that funding is as follows:

• 49% Own Source Revenues (ticket sales, fundraising, rentals, tours and merchandise sales)
• 28% Corporate and Private Donations ($60,000 cash donations and $100,000 in-kind services)
• 23% Government Grants (GNWT ($72,000), City of Yellowknife ($35,000) and Heritage Canada $32,500))

The Festival is a non-profit organization registered under the NWT Societies Act. It is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors, who, along with every other builder, volunteer and organizer, are anointed a distinctive ‘snow name’ by the Snowking himself: