Confederation Park, just opposite City Hall, will stage Winterlude's famous international ice carving competition in its "Crystal Garden".

BBC: Embracing winter in Ottawa

Both locations also do a lot of private parties and corporate events and are well suited for takeovers, from bachelor parties to product launches, complete with custom ice carving.

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As described by ice sculptor Joseph Amendola in his book Ice Carving Made Easy, written records dating back to 600 BC reveal that in the highlands of northwest China, farmers would flood their fields with water, wait for it to freeze, harvest blocks of ice and then store them in insulated facilities to help preserve perishables like seafood.

BBC: The origins of ice sculpting

It even includes more esoteric bar items like a bird's-nest double strainer used to remove small shards of ice from a shaken drink (to keep the cocktail from getting too diluted) and an ice pick, should you be interested in mastering the art of carving huge globes of ice for your Scotch.

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Many now use elegant long spoons made only in Japan for mixing drinks, and several have even adopted the Japanese practice of carving perfectly round ice balls.

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We were kept amused with a carving of a direwolf ice sculpture, as well as a concert performance of music from the television series: Jason Yang, who received over four million YouTube views of his one-man, thirteen-violin version of the theme song, led a nine-piece orchestra, who performed admirably despite the cold and passing traffic.

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Its devotees are like members of the U.S. Ski team in the late 1970s, a hardy bunch that grew up carving turns on the rutted ice of eastern mountains and later flourished on the sweet powder of the destination resorts out west.

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Ice sculptures are typically used in entertaining, both as decorative statues and as functional display pieces, and, ice sculpting often goes hand in hand with fruit and vegetable carving.

BBC: The origins of ice sculpting