London Ice Sculpting Festival 2012

Last year’s London Ice Sculpting Festival yielded some pretty impressive results as you can see from their video:

I stopped by Canary Wharf yesterday to watch this year’s contestants in action. It was early on during the first day (today is the last), so the dripping blocks of solid ice were still very much works in progress as you’ll see from the photos. The general theme was Olympic sports (of course).

Chainsaws roared to life. Sculptors scraped and chipped and shaved away excess ice. Brooms pushed piles of snow aside. There was even a “snow box” where kids could go to build snowmen until it all melts away.

Here’s a few photos. If you take some today of the finished pieces, share them in the Flickr pool.

Perhaps, though, the best part of yesterday’s little adventure was discovering the Global Fusion food stall set up behind the sculptures with plenty of samples. They sell vegan breads that are a bit more like scrumptiously moist cakes – apple-plum-oats, carrot-cherry, mango, cherry brandy, banana…I’m digging into a slice of delicious Creole apple crumble soda bread right now. Gorgeous. If you’re there today, don’t miss it. (Also, the girl who runs is lovely and likes to burst into loud song.)

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Oh, and one more thing. Little London Observationist is now available on Kindle for all of you looking for something to pass the time on your daily commute. It’s on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk and gets sent to your Kindle just as a book would. Enjoy!