From 11 to 13 January, Canary Wharf will once again play host to the London Ice Sculpting Festival.

Attracting participants from across the world, this year the festival will stretch to three days and, for the first time, the public will be involved in the voting process to determine who the master ice carvers are.

There will be three separate competitions over the course of the festival:

• this year’s doubles team challenge will be ‘Wonders Of The Universe’ which will see competitors presented with a 2m square block of ice out of which they will have to create something stunning over Friday and Saturday. Teams from the UK, USA, France, Hungary, Bulgaria, Sweden, the Netherlands, Latvia, Belgium, Portugal and Spain will be taking part.
• there will be a time trial competition for individual sculptors with the subject of ‘Infinity’, which will see them using a 1 metre block of ice with a time limit of two and a half hours to produce their work on Saturday
• a freestyle competition will also be taking place from 11am until 3pm on Sunday 13 January – the winner of this event will be judged by the general public and announced at 4pm that afternoon

Visitors to the Ice Sculpting Festival will be able to get involved in masterclasses to make their own penguins and polar bears, carve their own messages on the Ice Graffiti Wall, take part in a game of Ice Chess and even have snowball fights! Throughout the event there will also be displays from the Northern Lights Laser Show, which sounds like fun.

To take a look at everything that will be going on, just arrive at Canada Place anytime from 11am on Friday 11 January. Here are a few images from the 2011 Ice Sculpting Festival to whet your appetite!