Welcome to Manchester's first Ice Village, snuggly positioned in Cathedral Gardens, [the area between Chetham's Music School and The Urbis Football Museum] The Ice Cavern is a large temperature-controlled container which houses many cleverly crafted ice sculptures set amongst fir trees as well as an ice bar at the end of the short pathway. You'll need to wrap up well to view these beautiful artworks though, as it is -10 centigrade inside.
In all 250 tonnes of ice have been used to create these sculptures - some of the largest ice sculptures I have ever seen, including an almost full size locomotive engine, a polar bear and King Kong! Other noteworthy attractions along the route are a pair of ice thrones - feel free to sit on them and have your photo taken!, Father Christmas and Rudolph, Santa's Workshop, and various winter animals including arctic foxes and penguins.
The sculptures also made reference to Manchester's historic and cultural past with 10 specific artworks which include a female suffragette train driver, pulleys and cogs evoking the centre of the Industrial Revolution, a football, and the Manchester Bee.
My visit this afternoon was on a very windy and raining dusk, and sadly, I did not see any outward sign of Christmas or Winter adorning either the cavern or the village. It all looked very uninviting and dour, lacking snow, sparkling lights and atmosphere! I can only hope that the place might look a little more like a Winter Wonderland in dry weather and snow on the ground. The outside of the cavern was a steel grey and the walkway to the entrance soggy and uninviting.
The whole Ice Village seemed to have the same lacklustre approach to bedecking the area in festive colours and tradition. Fake snow, fairy lights, icicles hanging from the buildings and snowflakes lighting the paths are just some of the things which immediately came to mind which would have improved the look and attractiveness of the site a thousandfold.
Other attractions once inside the Ice Village include an ice rink, Father Christmas' Grotto, an arctic bar with rentable private mini-chalets, and a couple of arcade-style winter-themed games.
Hopefully nearer Christmas the Ice Village will start to look a lot more like an ice village, as it stands at the moment however it is very drab and uninspiring. Moreover there is little here to inspire and entertain young children. Once inside the cavern however, the sculptures are definitely worth a visit, but again, there is no interaction or entertainment on offer, and so youngsters would get easily bored by it I would imagine.
Reportage - Matthew Dougall
on - 27/11/18
Actually I should also mention that entry to this Ice Cavern is not free - and will set you back £10 per head.
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