The annual Ice at Santa Monica seasonal spectacular installation opened last week as massive numbers gathered to celebrate the seasonal spirit, filling the temporary ice rink to capacity on Friday evening.
Every year, the corner of 5th Street and Arizona Avenue is transformed into an ice skating rink, but building on the success of last year, Downtown Santa Monica, Inc. (DTSM) has once again partnered with specialist company Willy Bietak Productions, Inc. to produce something even better than last year’s production.
DTSM Operations and Placemaking Director Jeremy Ferguson introduced the evening’s proceedings before Robert Keith, Director of Rink Operations for Willy Bietak Productions spoke for a few minutes and then 2026 Winter Olympic US figure skating hopefuls Katie McBeath and Daniil Parkman gave an incredible performance to an energized and enthusiastic crowd.
Noticeably absent was any member of Santa Monica City staff along with any member of City Council, either existing or incoming. Moreover, not one of the 13 directors on the board at DTSM chose to attend the event, which was surprising since the 2023-24 season was a smash hit, generating a gross revenue of $1,096,792 with a total expenditure of just $126,829.
In years past, the rink had been constructed upon tons of flattened sand, but as Ferguson explains, that wasn’t particularly cost effective and it was extremely problematic to clear up afterwards. Like last year, the entire ice rink has been constructed upon a wooden framework that has been painstakingly laid flat over the uneven surface of the parking lot space using laser levels.
"We've been producing this ice rink since 2007 and we think that this year you're going to find that this is the best ice season yet. It takes a lot of hard work to make this to all come together," Ferguson said.
"Because every single piece of wood used has been carefully cut to size, numbered and indexed, we can rebuild and recreate exactly the same structure for the next five years or so without having to use any new or additional materials," said Matthew Kessinger, Project Director for Willy Bietak Productions.
The Santa Monica-based company has a long history of installing ice rinks throughout the state of California, including projects at Union Square in San Francisco, Beverly Hills and Pershing Square in Downtown Los Angeles. It was founded by an Austrian-born, national pair skating champion and Olympic contender Wilhelm Bietak. Following his retirement from competitive skating, Bietak started his skating rink-related events company over 30 years ago.
Benefitting from the experience of last year, a few teeny-tiny improvements have been made. The primary sponsor this year is Disney+ and the branding surrounding the ice rink is significantly more subtle to the extent that even the artificial turf has been color-matched to the studio’s teal-like hue called "Aurora" that’s used in the logo. The skate hire building has also been refined with cleaner lines and a new clear plastic roof has been installed, which means no lighting is necessary during the daytime.
The layout has changed slightly too. The VIP areas, as they were last year, have been removed and replaced with three more modest seating areas that each encircle a fire pit and are now placed right next to the rink to be closer to the action. There are no food and beverage outlets as such, so the need for hefty kitchen equipment has also been removed. Instead, Shake Shack will have a small presence, where on busier nights they will have a hot cocoa station, plus folk can order food from Shake Shack and get it delivered to the rink. There are plans to expand this to a permanent residence, but at the time of going to press, it hasn’t been completed yet.
While last year the rink was 25% bigger than it had ever been before, the rink this year is slightly smaller, by just 10 ft, which still leaves 120 by 60 square feet to skate on, with the entire site taking up approximately 16,000 square feet. Ultimately, what this all means is that there is considerably more space for people to change into their skates and just hang out inbetween sessions.
"We felt it was disjointed a little last year and the front area didn't get used as we were hoping. So we pushed everything forward to make the rink more center stage again," explained Kessinger, adding, "And we moved the kids rink to the left and so that opened the deck up too. So it's one big, wide open deck and it makes everything more visible. It's so much nicer this way."
"This year, we have three fire pits instead of two and they're more reasonably priced, and they come with a storage box. So rather than renting individual lockers for your group of six or eight, you can come in and use that storage box at the same time you're enjoying the ringside fire pit," Ferguson said.
The Chill Zone is another new addition this year, Ferguson said, which is just to one side of the main skating area and enables people to take a break without having to negotiate the ramp and actually leave the rink.
"You can just go to the end of the rink and watch a Disney movie against the Bank of America wall. And we’ll project movies and episodes from various different Disney Plus series right against the wall," he said.
Tickets can be purchased from the website, iceatsantamonica.com and admission for a one hour session, including skates, is $22; locker rental, gloves and socks are $5 each and a skate helper will cost $6. The opening hours will be noon to 10pm every day, each week and Friday and Saturday till 11pm.
scott.snowden@smdp.com
