The SnowCastle 2012 will be open January 28th, 2012.

HARBIN INTERNATIONAL ICE AND SNOW SCULPTURE FESTIVAL

FINLAND’S LUMI LINNA SNOW CASTLE

In anticipation of the release of 3D TRON: Legacy, last year a set of Ben Rousseau and Ian Douglas–Jones created a suite at the famous IceHotel above the Arctic Circle in Sweden. The electric blue Tron-inspired lighting scheme was achieved by cutting grooves into the ice, inserting energy efficient EL wire and then icing over the wire to keep it in place. The “Legacy Of The River” suite, was part of their campaign to launch a new line of illuminated furniture and products, which debuted earlier this year.

QUEBEC’S HOTEL DE GLACE

Every January the gorgeous Hotel De Glace in Quebec City opens to the public, and visitors are invited to sleep in artistically designed ice rooms. Made almost entirely from snow and ice, the hotel changes design and shape each winter. The hotel even boasts an ice chapel where lovebirds — who didn’t fly south for the winter — can wed.

HARBIN INTERNATIONAL ICE AND SNOW SCULPTURE FESTIVAL

For nearly 30 years, hundreds of thousands of people have flocked to the Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival in northeast China to witness dazzling works of manmade ice architecture. Chunks of ice are brought in from the frozen Songhua River and molded by talented sculptors into jaw-dropping life-size creations, which are placed throughout the city.