Unusually warm winter weather forced the cancellation of the 2024 Minnesota Ice Festival in Eagan, but now Viking Lakes will offer a different kind of ice for its Winter SKOLstice event: five rinks for skating and two sheets for curling. .
Five ice rinks will take place of canceled ice maze at Eagan's Viking Lakes
Warm weather nixed plans for an ice maze this year, but the five rinks featuring 45,000 square feet of ice will instead open Monday at the south metro headquarters of the Minnesota Vikings.
January 11, 2024 at 12:00PM
![Workers from IceTimeMN put a liner in one of 5 rinks at TCO Stadium Wednesday January ,10 2024 in, Eagan,Minn. ] JERRY HOLT • jerry.holt@startribune.com](https://arc.stimg.co/startribunemedia/FRHENBN6CUFPBI2O62D4FTKQQA.jpg?&w=712)
Instead of the planned 18,000-square-foot ice maze, organizers at Viking Lakes — the headquarters of the Minnesota Vikings — were busy this week constructing the temporary rinks.
"With the weather, we pivoted to ... five hockey rinks and two curling sheets," said Kyle Chank, general manager of Viking Lakes. "So we're scrambling to build those, and the weather on Saturday and Sunday will help us."
All seven refrigerated ice sheets will open and programming will begin Monday — Martin Luther King Jr. Day — when many children are out of school. The festivities will last through Feb. 25. Skating is free and requires no reservation; ice skates can be rented for $5.
"It's meant to be a free family event," Chank said.
Private ice time at any of the four Mauer GMC ice rinks used for hockey games must be reserved.
"It's not just going to your local park to skate. It's skating under the lights at TCO Stadium, where you feel like you're in a stadium skating," he said.
Chank called the uncooperative weather "a bummer" but noted that Viking Lakes has added three new events as part of its "winter sports takeover," which refers to the ice skating, hockey and curling happening inside TCO Performance Center, an outdoor stadium.
In the coming weeks, Viking Lakes will host a SKOLstice Beer Fest, a Touch-a-Truck event for kids and a hockey tournament.
Nightly programming is planned for the Paul Sutton Bourbon Warming Haus, located next to the stadium, including trivia on Thursdays and live music on weekends. Movies are planned for Monday nights on an oversize screen. Food and beverages are available for purchase.
Chank said Viking Lakes still plans to build an ice maze next year if weather permits.
Winter SKOLstice is open Monday through Wednesday from 5 to 9 p.m. and from Thursday through Sunday from noon to 10 p.m. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, hours are noon to 9 p.m.
