We’ve got 10 reasons why you should definitely be making plans to take a closer look at North Bay’s Ice Follies. Located on the shores of frozen Lake Nipissing (yes, really!), the festival offers 13 massive art installations for visitors to check out—and is just a 3.5-hour drive from the GTA.
Ice Follies in North Bay, Ontario is a biennial contemporary and community art festival that runs for two weeks every second February. This year the Ice Follies runs February 7th - 21st, 2025 and it’s welcoming a variety of arts presenters from Toronto, North Bay and New Liskeard, and there are 13 innovative art projects in total, making this the biggest festival so far.
Ice Follies is free, and it’s open 24/7! Just head to Shabogesic Beach (formerly known as Marathon Beach) to see the art set up right on the ice. Return as often as you like to see the exhibits in various weather conditions or at different times of day. Discover your favourite conditions for viewing the installations…is it sparkling bright daylight, swirling snow, or moody twilight?
This year, “Ozhaashikwaa” (The Ice is Slippery) is the theme of the festival. According to organizers, it “looks at our shifting landscapes and communities, including our changing relationship with our environment and each other.”
At the 2023 Ice Follies, Indigenous Matriarch of the Skwxwu7mesh, Sto:lo and Hawaiian people T’uy’t’tanat Cease Wyss shared Indigenous customs and teachings. She seeks to connect Indigenous peoples, drawing on her work as an artist, activist, ethnobotanist and community-based educator. Her installation was called “A visit to the Underwater World of Gichi-nibiinsing-zaag’igan” and it’s a short video loop that includes both live action video of water and animated versions of underwater life. Ice Follies organizers say that “The effect is meant to give viewers a fantastical vision of what is going on under the water at any given time, and how the environment underwater is its own world of wonder that humans are not necessarily a part of.”
Toronto-based media art collective that includes researchers, designers, artists and creative technologists, Public Visualization Studio (PVS), brought a piece to the 2023 Ice Follies work that showcased creatures inspired by The Book of Imaginary Beings by Jorge Luis Borges, and the creatures take the form of 3D digital masks displayed on 83” QLED screens in a free-standing ice hut as well as at the DGTL Creator North space at the Capitol Centre. Even cooler: the masks are interactive and “look” at the viewers in real time through AI-generated animations and motion-sensing cameras. The project collaborators are people connected to North Bay’s ArtFix (a collective of artists with lived experience with mental health or substance use challenges) and Near North Mobile Media Lab (N2M2L).
For example: in 2023, Anishinaabe artist Quinn Hopkins presented physical art with a QR code that lets you access a virtual world beneath the ice; Nipissing University Fine Arts students construct sculptural fragments that appear to be emerging from the ice, illuminated by glowing lights; and Irish ex-pat Dermot Wilson outfits an authentic ice hut with images and interviews of past Ice Follies experiences. There are other intriguing installations to be discovered too.
Take a free self-guided walking tour of storefront windows in North Bay’s 100 Block West that chronologically highlight images, by North Bay photographer Liz Lott, of work created by Ice Follies artists in past years. A map with storefront locations will be available online and at each location. As well, on select dates you can opt into a guided tour out on the ice, for $10 per ticket.
Ice Follies has partnered with creatives like Vox Choir, Creative Industries, Styly, Big Medicine Studios, and others to offer community arts projects and workshops. Check the festival website for details on other events like the opening night reception, Queer Ice Fishing on the Family Day weekend, and artist talks.
Presenters include Aanmitaagzi, an artist-run company serving artists and community members of Nipissing First Nation and the surrounding area; Near North Mobile Media Lab, a media arts access centre for Northern Ontario; White Water Gallery, an artist-run centre that encourages outreach programming; WKP Kennedy Gallery, North Bay’s public art gallery; Nipissing Regional Curatorial Collective, which produces, promotes and documents cultural events; Nipissing University; and Trinity Square Video, Canada’s oldest media arts centre.
Outdoor art festivals are usually pretty cool and memorable, and Ice Follies certainly delivers. Bundle up for an unforgettable outing right on the North Bay waterfront and the shores of Nipissing First Nation. In the (arguably) snowiest, coldest, iciest month of winter, you get to experience something that’s uniquely northern and a feast for the senses.
Visit these sites to learn more about the Ice Follies and how to visit North Bay.
