About the Snowkings’ Winter Festival

The Story

The Snowkings’ Winter Festival is a beloved Yellowknife tradition. For thirty years, the Snowking, Anthony Foliot, has spearheaded the construction of a snow castle to be enjoyed by the creative and playful of all ages. The tradition began in the winter of 1992/1993 as a children’s snow fort created by the Snowking and Scott Mitchell (“Sir Shiverin’ Sam”) in Yellowknife’s iconic Woodyard neighbourhood, in Old Town. The following winter, construction moved to Yellowknife Bay on Great Slave Lake, where the Snowking and his friends used a front-end loader to pile snow into windrows out of which snow blocks were cut by hand as the building blocks for walls. The winter of 1993/1994 is regarded as Snowking I; subsequent iterations of Snowking would see the castle grow in size, creativity and ingenuity. Last year Snowkings’ Winter Festival celebrated its 30th Anniversary – XXX! But we’re not done yet! Preparations are well underway for the 2025-26 Festival – XXXI scheduled for March 1-28, 2026.

The Build

In recent years, the construction format has been consistent: Shortly after the shores of Great Slave Lake freeze up in November, a specialized team ventures carefully onto the newly-formed ice to cut freshly-formed ice blocks which will ultimately form the Castle’s windows and other ornamental features. Design and planning of the main castle takes place in the months leading up to Christmas, but the 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 two-month marathon of flurried activity. There are eight short weeks for a castle to rise from the lake; with the doors opening for a month-long festival in March. Time is of the essence, and the crews work longer hours as the amount of daylight increases into late January and February. Temperatures commonly reach -40 degrees Celsius while the crews work in the elements. This is hard on equipment and bodies, but there’s no time to spare.

To build the castle walls, a snow blower is used to blow snow into custom-made plywood forms – a construction method that replaced the snow blocks of old in 2004. Collapsible forms, called “beetles,” are placed inside the walls before they are “poured,” which, when removed, leave beautiful arched doorways and passages. After the walls are up, the snow carving team start work adorning the castle inside and out with intricate details and flourishes.
Inside the castle walls is a beautiful open-air courtyard with tunnels, secret rooms and passageways, and the iconic ice slides of varying steepness for kids of all ages. The courtyard is adorned with beautiful works of art, handcrafted from ice and snow and a visitors’ centre where patrons can warm up, learn more about the festival and purchase merchandise. Pass through another entranceway in the courtyard, and you’ll enter the enclosed dance hall where crowds gather on select evenings to celebrate the end of winter and enjoy live performances from local and visiting artists.

The Festival

When the construction is over, and Spring is knocking at the castle door, the festival opens to the public on March 1, kicking off four weeks of play, music, snow sculptures, theatre, film and other art performances with programming targeting all ages, particularly families. The organization takes pride in its community roots and partners with local groups and individuals who can showcase their creative talents. This year will mark the 10th Anniversary of the Snowkings’ International Snow Carving Symposium. Teams are invited from all over the world to carve breathtaking works of art from 3 square metre blocks of snow located outside the castle walls. Each team has four days to complete its masterpiece, and visitors are welcome to watch them at their work. The completed carvings remain outside the castle walls for the duration of the festival and can be viewed free of charge.

In its most recent year, 2025 (XXX), the Castle welcomed more than 15,000 visitors, coordinated ten large evening programs and twenty-five daytime performances, opened its doors for twenty-six days, programmed special children’s activities each Saturday and Sunday and hosted an international snow carving competition. All of this on a shoestring budget. Although planning and organizing the festival has become a year-round effort, artisans and administrators are nominally paid or work on an entirely volunteer basis.

The Board

The Festival is a non-profit organization registered under the NWT Societies Act. It is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors currently comprising the following dedicated community members:

The Funding

We are grateful to the many organizations, public and private, that 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 is $568,000, 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))

Thanks for taking the time to learn more about Snowkings’ Winter Festival. We invite you to explore the rest of our website and to join us on the ice for Snowking XXXI – March 1 – 28, 2026.