Cheltenham has opened their ice rink today for the first time. It is set to welcome up to 30,000 people over the festive period.
The open-air ice rink, which is the first of its kind in the town, will run from the 18th November until 2ndJanuary, allowing time for families to enjoy their day in the town during the holidays.
David Jackson, Manager of Marketing Cheltenham, says “It’s just a really welcoming joyous moment…It’s just fantastic to see this happening and the community, the town and visitors can hopefully take to it, enjoy it and come to have a great time”.
The Mayor of Cheltenham, Steve Harvey, was also there to have a skate on the ice. He says that having an ice rink in Cheltenham is “really exciting”, while opening up his bag to show us his sunglasses, his bobble hat and a Christmas jumper.
The first guests came in to try the ice rink out were many being local charities, one of the guests was there to share their expressions.
The guest says “it’s just what we need and it’s great to have it in Cheltenham because you don’t have to travel to another town to enjoy ice skating”.
During the opening of the ice rink, some students at the University of Gloucester were pleased to hear about it. One student said that they would take their mum to try it out.
“We were actually talking about it in the morning” a local said, “There will probably be quite a few queues and local people in the parks too”.
For Cheltenham, Christmas is looking bright. Hopefully, the new ice rink is ready to bring the festivity the town has been looking for after lockdown.
Matteo Pirelli, Park Life
