Drake’s downtown ice display originated in Huron County

A Hensall company provided all the ice blocks for Drake’s downtown Toronto ice display advertising his new album release. Scott Miller reports.

A tower of ice in downtown Toronto that captured the city’s attention this week originated from a small company in Huron County.

“We have done some really exciting projects that are more challenging from a carving side. Obviously, these weren’t carved, but just watching it all happen was pretty, pretty cool,” said Iceculture President Heidi Bayley.

Iceculture, based in Hensall, has gained a worldwide reputation for its intricate ice carvings, putting together displays for everyone from Conan O’Brien to Canadian Tire.

But when they got a call two weeks ago for more than 3,500 blocks of ice for a display for music icon Drake, they had to quickly fire up their freezers.

“The amount of ice was certainly a challenge. We worked with some partners out of Quebec that helped us meet the number, because while we keep thousands of ice blocks in our freezer, we didn’t have 3,500 sitting around two weeks ago. So, this was a very fast turnaround,” explained Bayley.

With more than 3,500 ice blocks secured, they shipped the ice to Toronto earlier this week, where they was assembled by MAWG Design and Drake’s team, and if social media is correct, by Drake himself.

A 16-ice block high promotion for his upcoming album release Iceman, with the release date hidden within the ice structure, which prompted some dangerous behaviour, and brought out the fire department to melt Iceculture’s ice before its time.

“It was disappointing to see it go so soon, but I certainly can’t pretend to understand what they were faced with,” said Bayley.

Still, it was 48 hours of promotional success for Drake and Iceculture, who have another famous client to add to their long list of international ice customers.

“This one was definitely up there. Mostly because of Drake, obviously. The excitement around it, the resulting excitement around it was new. That was a new one just to watch,” said Bayley.

Bayley believes it was previous partnerships and Iceculture’s reputation that led to getting Drake’s “ice mountain” contract.

“It’s not a massive industry, so it’s maybe not hard to find us in that sort of frame, but it was more about coming together with a group of partners that could pull it off as a whole,” said Bayley.