Midway Plaisance Ice Rink

Public skating at Midway Plaisance Ice Rink: the next 7 days

Currently out of season The Chicago Park District says: "All other outdoor rinks are now closed for the season." Its ice rinks list shows Midway Plaisance Ice Rink as "Closed". It gives no opening day. Chicago Park District's outdoor rinks typically open in late November and run through mid-February; the 2026-27 dates have not been posted yet. Official schedule update

The Midway's refrigerated rink, on the site of the 1893 Ferris wheel

Skating on the Midway Plaisance goes back at least to the turn of the 20th century, when it was a popular spot for ice skating and sledding. Historian Julia Bachrach calls it the most popular place for outdoor skating in Chicago: for decades the long sunken lawn in the center was flooded each winter, and the South Park Commissioners estimated as many as 160,000 skaters used the frozen lawn in the winter of 1923.

The natural-ice tradition continued until the mid-1990s, when winters were no longer consistently cold enough to keep the ice from thawing. In the late 1990s the Chicago Park District spent 6 million dollars on several refrigerated rinks across the city, including an Olympic-sized rink in the center of the Midway. It stands on the exact location of the world's first Ferris wheel, the best-known attraction on the Midway at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, and is used for in-line skating in the summer.

Today the rink offers ice skating lessons and Rat Hockey pickup games, and the park hosts the Silver Skates speed skating competition.

Before you head out.

Admission, rentals and arrival details, researched from official rink information. Source checks stay current for 30 days.

A source check records what the rink published on that date. Session-specific booking details take precedence.