CityLife

Smirnoff to create Urbis ice sculpture

The icy proposal

THE Smirnoff Co. announced today that it will be simultaneously unveiling five huge ice sculptures across the UK, one of which in Manchester, to celebrate the launch of two new flavours of vodka; Green Apple Smirnoff and Lime Smirnoff.

Appearing on Sept 11 in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester, Liverpool and London, the ice sculptures will recreate iconic landmarks from each of the five major UK cities in the form of scaled-down replicas with Manchester’s futuristic Urbis being reproduced at The Great Northern.

The installations will see some of the world’s top ice sculptors, Duncan and Jamie Hamilton, Ben Edson, Jack Hackney and Darren Jackson work through the night to carve the structures from a mix of clear and white ice.

The ice blocks will be prepared in giant freezers at the Hamilton’s workshop in South West London and will be transported to each location on Sept 11. Upon arrival, they’ll be slotted into place and shaped into their illustrious designs - incorporating limes, green apples and frozen bottles of Smirnoff flavoured vodka.

Sculptor Duncan Hamilton says: “We were delighted to be asked to work with Smirnoff Flavours.  This is the first time we have been asked to design and produce a project of this scale.  The challenge to present such unique large sculptures in five city centres, at the same time and on the same day is wonderful.”

Weighing up to an impressive 3 ½ tonnes, each sculpture will take 4 men approximately 5 hours to assemble and carve from the time the blocks arrive on site.  Once completed, each frozen edifice will be on show for just a day and night until the ice melts and they disappear.