Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I had the pleasure to check out the snow castle down on Yellowknife Bay. And I'm very excited about this year's festival. I had fun riding the slides with some of my colleagues. Two of our Ministers were posting on social media about that the other day.
So every year the dedicated crew of passionate artisans bring magic to our northern winter by creating a northern work of art. This year will be the 29th edition of this amazing event that celebrates our northern winter creating a month-long arts festival which provides a venue to countless northern artists and invites kids of all ages to come play in the snow. The festival punches way above its weight in terms of the funding it brings in and the different benefits it brings to our community, Mr. Speaker. It's great for tourism. It's great for the arts. It's great for community spirit. It's a fun thing for kids to do. It brings a lot of hope and kind of -- it's something to look forward to at the end of a long winter every year. So I know it's become a beloved event in the community.
So this year's design has been inspired by Spanish architect Anthony Gaudi, and I can say, having taken a little tour through it, it is absolutely stunning this year. It is a beautiful work of art. It's also a lot of fun. So it's kind of a combination of all those things. And it's really great.
The festival runs during the whole month of March. I highly recommend everyone get out to see it. Opening ceremony is this Saturday, March 4th. That will be open with a performance of the Yellowknife Dene Drummers and Norway dance troupe Nordting, and Dene spoken word artist Kiera-Dawn Kolson, among others. The international snow carving symposium runs from March 1st to 3rd with carvers coming from as far as Korea.
Mr. Speaker, thank you to contributions from our group of Yellowknife MLAs on March 8th, which is the first day of March break for students of Yellowknife, admission will be free for everyone. I highly recommend everyone get down to the castle and check it out on this fun day when it'll be free to attend. Everybody needs to embrace the magic of Snow King. Go down and try the slide. It's a lot of fun. And thank you to this festival for the many, many, many years of community spirit you've brought to Yellowknife. It's really wonderful. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.