​January 13 marked the beginning of the work on creating an ice sculpture gallery as part of the "Magic Ice of Siberia" Festival. 20 young Krasnoyarsk sculptors are doing their magic building a variety of ice figures. Up until January 19, the participants will be sawing, gluing and grinding the ice into the desired shape every day from 10AM to 5PM. 20 ice blocks measuring one by two meters and weighing more than a ton each were prepared for the contestants. 

Yana Kasperovich and Alina Selyutina from the "Ice" team are students of the Krasnoyarsk Art College n.a. V.I. Surikov, and are participating in the competition for the first time. They called their work "Blizzard", inspired by Eugene Onegin, a novel by Alexander Pushkin. The participants approached the matter seriously – immediately after the opening ceremony they went to the store and bought warm footwear:

— We're a bit agitated still. Since this is our first time participating, we don't know how or what to do, but our instructors help us. Now we are learning to sculpt a shape from a simple block of ice, trying to create volume. This is all completely new for us. It's like, you're used to working one way, but now you need to rethink everything and master a different technique.

The youth competition "Magic Ice of Siberia" began on Saturday. Vice Mayor of the city Alexei Shuvalov congratulated the participants and townspeople on the opening. The musical mood was provided by the musicians of the local Cultural Centres and the Jager cover band.

The students from the Siberian State Institute of Arts, the Krasnoyarsk Art School, and young teachers from Children's art schools No. 1, No. 2 and No. 15 are participating in the competition as well.

Sculptor, eleven-time winner of international ice sculpture competitions, chairman of the Magic Ice of Siberia competition jury Alexander Zaitsev shared his first impressions:

— Whoever participates for the first time can be seen right away. They shave the ice extremely carefully, in small pieces, study the way ice works as sculpture foundation. We help cut and lift the ice because it's heavy. The weather is perfect, thankfully. Nature is on our side. 

Very soon, an entire gallery of fairy-tale characters will line up on the right embankment of the Yenisei River. Krasnoyarsk residents will see "The Swan Princess", "The Golden Fish", "The Aristocratic Peasant Girl" and other Pushkin characters created from ice.

The winners will be selected by a professional jury. 50 thousand rubles will receive the team for the 1st place, 40 thousand rubles for the 2nd, 30 thousand rubles for the 3rd. The audience's favorite will be determined by the Krasnoyarsk residents themselves.

According to good tradition, the "Magic Ice of Siberia" is held with the support of the world-famous philanthropist, Honorary Citizen of the Krasnoyarsk Region and the city of Krasnoyarsk Khazret Sovmen.