Work to start on Hawrelak Park ice castle

Forget re-watching Frozen for the umpteenth time — there's a real-life ice castle coming to town and its owners are looking for icicle makers.

After a one-year delay, work has begun on a one-acre winter wonderland at Hawrelak Park.

Five million gallons of ice will go into the structure, which will stand about 30 feet, with caves, tunnels and passageways beckoning would-be explorers. In the end, the entire structure will be lit up in magical colours that change in sync with piped-in music.

And it will all be built by hand, using only water, ice and snow.

"(We're) looking for people who want to be involved to build one of the coolest ice structures they've ever seen," said Ryan Davis, the CEO of Ice Castles, the company behind the build.

The business got its start in the Utah backyard of Davis' business partner Brent Christensen. That first year, he built an ice cave in his backyard at his daughter's request.

The following year, he upped the ante with a wooden frame, which he coated in ice. He also added a slide. However, when the March thaw came around, the wood began to splinter and the structure became unsafe.

So Christensen started to experiment. The following year, he dropped the wooden frame, realizing that ice alone formed a stronger structure. Each year, his creations grew and grew, built only of icicles, snow and water.

Ice castles around the world

Since then, the company has built ice castles all over the world.

Click through the gallery below to see some of the other icy structures the company has made:

"It has been amazing for me to see the transformation from building a small ice structure in my backyard in Utah to the massive interactive sculptures we are building now," Christensen said in a statement.

"What's really special is that every visitor gets a distinctive experience. There is nothing like this anywhere."

Davis acknowledged spraying down the icicles with water in the cold weather is not always fun — but says the discomfort is all worth it when he gets to see people exploring his creations.

The entire build will take a month or two, depending on the weather, Davis said. While anything below freezing will work, Davis said the best temperature range for construction is between five and 10 degrees below.

The first step will be laying out sprinkler piping on site, before a local crew of icicle makers is hired. Both Davis and Christensen will be making the trip to Edmonton, along with their icicle trainer, to show the hired Edmontonians how to make the most of ice.

Work on the castle is expected to be completed by late December, and it will remain open to the public through March, weather permitting.

The castle was originally slated to be part of the Edmonton Silver Skate Festival last February, but the plan was suspended when it ran into unexpected delays in getting city approvals.