Drake's ice tower stunt caused all kinds of problems in Toronto
Started from the bottom ... and now we're back at the bottom.
It started late Monday evening, when police and fire services were called to an 8-metre-high ice tower in a Toronto parking lot after receiving reports that people had scaled the formation and were refusing to come down.
The giant tower was set up by a team employed by Toronto rapper Drake as a publicity stunt to tease his next album.
The release date for the new album, titled “Iceman,” was buried inside the sculpture. It was supposed to be revealed when it melted — which Weather Network meteorologist Tyler Hamilton calculated would occur in May — but determined Toronto fans had other plans.
By Monday evening, hours after the sculpture was revealed, fans were attempting to speed up the melting process, using pickaxes and hammers to chip away at the ice.
Other fans just started throwing things at it.
“I watched a girl throw salt on it,” said Weather Network reporter Victoria Fenn Alvarado, who went to survey the scene Tuesday afternoon.
“Not road salt. Just table salt.”
Use what you have, I guess.
(The Weather Network)
Wasn’t this a giant safety hazard?
You betcha.
Officers were called in to assist with crowd control just after 11 p.m. Monday.
“Large pieces of ice began falling, creating a dangerous situation for people on the ground, as well as those who climbed the structure,” a police spokesperson said via Toronto Today.
No injuries were reported.
We’re thankful for that, because by Tuesday morning, the daily high, combined with damage from fans the night before, had loosened some of the ice.
While filing her report, some of it fell on Victoria.
“You could see melting chunks of ice at the top,” she said.
“There were little icicle blocks falling down.”
Release date revealed Tuesday afternoon
On Tuesday afternoon, Twitch streamer "Kishka" was filmed on top of the broken structure pulling a blue package from the ice.
“They might arrest me!” He says as he attempts to get down.
Before the reveal, Kishka reportedly spoke with a streamer associated with Drake. He was told to go to Drake’s Toronto home.
Kishka opened the package outside of Drake’s house on a table set up on the driveway, revealing a release date of May 15, 2026.
Drake is seen greeting Kishka from his window.
Firefighters melt sculpture
Fire crews were called to the scene Tuesday evening due to reports of "dangerous and unsafe activities” at the structure, Fire Chief Jim Jessop told the Canadian Press.
According to Jessop, people were using flammable liquids and uncontrolled open flames on the ice, creating what he called an "immediate threat to life.”
By early Wednesday morning, crews were seen using hot water to melt the remaining structure.
Ice structure was built to last
Had the tower remained untouched, Weather Network meteorologist Tyler Hamilton estimated the date reveal would have been in 1-2 weeks, and that full structural melt would have occurred in 4-8 weeks.
That was based on a total ice estimate of 464 metric tonnes, or 464,000 kilograms.
“My calculation was based on 3,248 blocks, measuring 40 by 20 by 10 inches,” he said.
“The weight per block was approximately 143 kilograms. The energy required to melt all the ice would have been about 155 gigajoules, which is roughly the monthly electricity use of 40+ homes, or about 4 years of electricity for a single home.”
Hamilton made the timeline estimate based on Toronto afternoon temperatures averaging 12–13°C, and the coming days being mostly dry with some showers in between.
“Melting happens from the outside in,” he explained.
“The structure would have rounded off over time, reducing the exposed surface area and slowing the melt as time goes on.
"Meanwhile, the interior would have acted like a thermal buffer, delaying the interior melt.”
Sun and wind would have accelerated the process, as well as any rain, because rain accelerates melt significantly.
That's due to water transferring heat more efficiently than air, Hamilton added.
Header image compiled by Cheryl Santa Maria for The Weather Network using Canva Pro. Yes, I am aware of how it looks. In my extremely professional opinion, it needed to be done.