Lake Geneva has long been a summer playground for Chicagoans, but the Wisconsin city will likely draw quite a few tourists this winter with its new attraction: a magical, made-for-Instagram Ice Castle.
Built with hundreds of thousands of icicles and lit up with embedded LED lights that twinkle to music, the uber cool castle is expected to debut in late December in Lake Geneva, a roughly 90-minute drive from Chicago.
The work of wintry art comes from Utah-based Ice Castles, co-founded by Brent Christensen, a father of six who built his first ice castle in his front yard in Alpine, Utah, in 2009.
“We had so many people stopping by, I thought maybe this could go on a bigger scale,” Christensen told the Tribune in late 2016, when his company created one of its namesake projects in Wisconsin Dells.
Tricked out with tunnels, fountains, sculptures, slides and thrones — all made of ice — the colorful castles have taken social media by storm.
Six North American cities will host Ice Castles this winter, including Stillwater, Minn.; Dillon, Colo.; Lincoln, N.H.; Midway, Utah; and Edmonton, Canada.
The Lake Geneva location will be at 812 Wrigley Drive, near the body of water known as Geneva Lake.
Icicles are the unorthodox building blocks for the castles, which take a team of 20 to 40 “ice artisans” about two months to build.
Between 5,000 and 12,000 icicles are made daily and harvested by hand. They’re added to the existing structure and then drenched with water. The frosty frame is refined by artisans wielding pickaxes and chainsaws.
The mix of icicles, temperature, water volume and wind combine to help shape the ever-changing formation, measuring about 1 acre in size and weighing an estimated 25 million pounds.
“Lots of people think ice castles are structures made out of blocks of ice, symmetrical and with straight edges; ours have more of a natural feel,” Christensen said about his patented construction process in the 2016 Tribune story. “We capture the beauty that happens” as icicles form, drip and merge.
The seasonal castles’ opening and closing dates are largely determined by Mother Nature. Most stay open until early March.
Tickets will likely go on sale shortly after Thanksgiving, according to a company spokesperson. Specific details will be shared with people on Ice Castles’ subscriber list (sign up at icecastles.com) before being announced on social media.
Tickets bought online in advance cost $10.95 for children (ages 4 to 11 years old), $15.95 for adults on weekdays, $14.95 to $18.95 on weekends. Walk-up pricing (admission not guaranteed) is $15 to $20 on weekdays, $20 to $25 on weekends. Children under the age of 4 are admitted for free.
Twitter @lorirackl
