Lakeside Park holiday ice rink will be the real deal this year
No more artificial surface for the Marble Falls portable holiday ice rink. This year, the rink will be made of ice and available for six weeks. iStock image
This year’s holiday skating rink in Marble Falls will be made of ice. Timed to coincide with the Walkway of Lights Christmas lights display, which is Nov. 20 through Jan. 2, the rink will be located at Lakeside Park in Marble Falls, announced Lacey Dingman, director of the Marble Falls Parks and Recreation Department on Thursday, Sept. 24.
Last year, the “ice” rink was made of plastic and was in place for three days.
The park, 305 Buena Vista Drive, was chosen because it has “ample space, access to necessary electrical requirements, and offers a cohesive event for the public,” Dingman said.
“We want to drive traffic downtown and create the hometown feeling,” she added.
Admission is $12 for ages 13 and older for one hour and $10 for 12 and younger for one hour, which includes skates.
Officials examined the costs of renting versus buying the equipment for the rink and discovered it would be $100,000 to purchase, so they sought a vending partner, IceRinkEvents.com.
By agreement, the city will pay $20,000 upfront and a guaranteed $40,000 of revenue. Anything above $40,000 will be split between the vendor and the city.
“This was an effective way we could bring it to town,” Dingman said. “The city doesn’t own the equipment. We want to see how to run one. We never ran a real ice skating rink. This makes it feasible for us.”
Dingman said the city began considering a real ice skating rink after feedback from those who used last year’s synthetic rink.
“People were really excited about the event,” she said. “What we heard was, ‘This could be better’ and ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if it were real life?’ We’re doing everything we can to make it possible.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was updated on Sept. 24 with the location of the ice rink.
1 thought on “Lakeside Park holiday ice rink will be the real deal this year”
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I’m all for our City bringing back the ice skating rink for the kids!
But when I learned last week that we don’t have a person to run the city animal shelter I must say that I think the money being spent on the ice rink should go towards a temporary person to run the animal shelter until the regular person in charge returns.