How crews are working to create sculptures ahead of Ice Castles return to Edmonton

After a five-year hiatus, Ice Castles is getting ready to return to Edmonton, this time in the city's core. CTV News Edmonton's Marek Tkach has details.

Crews are hard at work preparing to build beautiful, frozen ice castles downtown Edmonton, including a local artist.

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Ritchie Velthius has been sculpting in the city for over 30 years. His hands helped create the Bob and Doug McKenzie statue at Ice District.

He usually works with clay and is switching materials with his next project, helping execute the design of the castle.

“This is really a team effort, there’s about 25 of us that build the castle so we’re placing ice and making a large sculpture,” said Velthuis.

He says it’s one of the biggest sculptures he’s ever created and it’s an honour to be a part of the process.

Ice Castles was previously set up in Hawrelak Park five years ago and first came to Edmonton in 2015.

Sprinklers are currently being set up around the area, waiting for the weather to get cooler to create ice.

“There’s basically a blueprint of the castle that we start with and then it organically changes as the ice grows,” Velthuis told CTV News Edmonton.

People will be able to see frozen tunnels, archways and caverns. The one-acre area will also feature towers, slides and fountains, all entirely made from ice. At night, the area will glow with colour changing LED lights.

“If we get nice cold temperatures, we can grow towers up to 40 to 50 feet tall,” Velthuis said.

The project has been two years in the making with Ice District.

“I think it brings families down throughout the winter. It’s always something we set out to do when we developed Ice District,” said Kyle Ferguson, director of content and programming for Ice District.

The Utah-based company has other locations including in Colorado, Minnesota and New Hampshire.

“This is a good step towards winter programming, this is what we want to focus on as we work towards 2029 and Event Park coming to this location,” Ferguson said.

Ice Castles is expected to open sometime before Christmas and remain open until February or early March, depending on the weather.

People can buy advanced tickets available on Dec. 2.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Marek Tkach.