Outdoor Ice Skating Rink to Open at Navy Pier Friday

CHICAGO, IL - Temperatures could hit near record highs this weekend, which makes for perfect timing when it comes to the opening of Navy Pier’s latest attraction.

An outdoor skating rink is being installed at the pier’s new Polk Bros Park and will be open to the public beginning at noon on Friday, June 10. The rink is 66 feet wide and 82 feet long and will take up space in the pier’s recent addition of 13 acres of green space near the main front entrance.

“Skate by the Lake” will be open from noon to 10 p.m. daily in the summer. Tickets to the rink are $10 if you bring your own skates or $15 with skates included.

Its opening will be temporary. 

“We are excited to offer Navy Pier guests the unique opportunity to skate in Chicago’s warm summer breezes. It is both thrilling and fitting to offer this memorable experience in Polk Bros Park, whose namesake family built a summer rink for Chicagoans to enjoy more than half a century ago,” said Marilynn Gardner, President and Chief Executive Officer for Navy Pier, Inc., the non-profit organization that operates Navy Pier.

The addition of the outdoor summer ice skating rink has historical significance when considering its location, Polk Bros Park. The Polk family for which the park near the Pier’s entrance is named had a history of using creative promotions to attract customers to their discount appliance and furniture stores and, in 1953, built a summer ice skating rink in the parking lot of their Polk City Complex on the North Side of the city.

According to a news release from Navy Pier, that rink was home to several free Chicago Blackhawks practices.

The addition of the summer rink is part of a series of celebration additions the pier has for its 100th anniversary. A new Ferris Wheel has already been added and other luxuries like a hotel are on the way in the coming years.