Snowcastle for Sale – Cheap!

Looking for that perfect venue for your next wedding reception, birthday party, bar mitzvah, or frat party? Well, do I have a deal for you! As long as you love cold weather, can plan your activity for March, and don’t mind flying everyone involved to Yellowknife, in the Northwest Territories of Canada, you’re in luck! I’m talking about the Snowcastle, a full-sized castle built right out on Yellowknife Bay almost completely out of snow and ice!

Every year the residents of Yellowknife get together to build a huge castle out of snow and ice sourced from Yellowknife Bay on the edge of the enormous Great Slave Lake. The castle is built on the bay just off the shore of the city’s historic Old Town. For the entire month of March each year, the castle is used to host shows, concerts, art exhibits, and more. I hear the design gets more and more elaborate each year as the architects try to outdo the efforts of the previous year.

A large window on the Snowking Snowcastle is made of blocks of ice, in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada.

While the walls are made of blocks of snow, ice is used to simulate glass in all of the windows. Although I arrived too late in the year to see the inside due to concerns over structural integrity with the warmer weather, you can view images of the interior on the Snowking website. I suggest you click through the images on the home page to see how amazing this place is on the inside.

Sculpture contests are also held on the “grounds” outside the castle. The area around the castle was covered with entries from various events.

An ice sculpture sits in the front yard of the Snowking Snowcastle, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada.

While out there admiring the Snowcastle and the various arches and sculptures that surround it, you’re well aware that you’re standing on the bay. But it’s one thing to walk around on the snow covering the lake – it’s quite another to be able to see the bare ice, complete with all the deep cracks underneath your feet. Yikes!

The Snowking Snowcastle is built entirely on the frozen Great Slave Lake, in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada.

Two days after I took these photos, I came back to find an excavator parked in the middle of the structure, a huge pile of blocks of snow tossed out back. Alas, as the weather warms there’s concern that the building will collapse on passerby, so rather than letting it melt, they are forced to tear it down. I mentioned to someone that this seemed prudent, since one of the walls was starting to lean a bit. “Oh, it’s been that way since the day it was built!”, the resident commented. Well, that’s reassuring!

The Snowking Snowcastle is viewed through an archway built of snow, in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada.

I don’t know if you can really rent this place out for private events, but it’s definitely something worth seeing. Maybe next time I’ll get up to Yellowknife in March so I can see the place in action from the inside! Just remind me to take along my hardhat – just in case!

The front view of the Snowking Snowcastle, in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada.