Admission
Ice skating admission is $10, or $12 from December to January.
Source checked · · Official source
Winston-Salem Fairgrounds Arena
Winston-Salem's 1989 fairgrounds rink, the Annex until 2024, home ice of Twin City Thunderbirds hockey.
Public skating at Winston-Salem Fairgrounds Arena: the next 7 days
No public skating is posted for the next 7 days. New sessions show here as soon as the rink posts them.
- Address
- 414 Deacon Blvd, Winston-Salem, NC 27105
- Hours
- Daily, varies by session — see schedule below
- Phone
- 336-734-1582
- Website
- wsfairgrounds.com
The Annex, Winston-Salem's 1989 fairgrounds rink
Fairgrounds Arena opened in 1989 as the Fairgrounds Annex, built as an actual annex to the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum, which opened the same year. Long known as the Annex Ice Rink, the building was renamed the Fairgrounds Arena in March 2024. It sits on the roughly 70-acre fairgrounds that the Winston-Salem Foundation gave to the city on December 1, 1969.
Inside is a single 200-by-85-foot hockey sheet with seating for 4,000. Professional hockey has come and gone here in stretches: the Winston-Salem Mammoths of the SHL in 1995–96, the IceHawks of the UHL from 1997 to 1999 and the Twin City Cyclones of the SPHL from 2007 to 2009, before the fairgrounds welcomed pro hockey back in 2017 with the Carolina Thunderbirds. The team now plays as the Twin City Thunderbirds, and on its 2025–26 schedule most Saturday home games end with a post-game skate open to the public.
The arena is also where the Winston-Salem Youth Hockey Association's Junior Thunderbirds and Lady Thunderbirds teams practice and play, sharing the ice with the pros and the Wake Forest University Hockey Club. The fairgrounds' own skating lessons are led by Jane Hottinger, who has taught skating for more than 30 years, and the floor also takes wrestling cards such as the NWA Crockett Cup in June 2023.
Before you head out.
Admission, rentals and arrival details, researched from official rink information. Source checks stay current for 30 days.
Skates & rentals
Rental skates are $3.
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Booking & check-in
Admission is sold in person at the Arena Box Office or online through the Fairgrounds' event store; there is no advance pre-registration for a session, and leaving to re-enter later the same day requires paying again as a separate session.
Source checked · · Official source
Skating with children
One non-skating spectator per skater may enter for $1. Push-helper skating aids for kids and adults rent for $5 each. Stick 'N Puck requires at least a helmet, though full gear is recommended.
Source checked · · Official source
Parking & arrival
Parking for public ice skating and Carolina Thunderbirds hockey games is at the arena's own address, 414 Deacon Blvd. Parking for other Fairgrounds events is at Gate 7 (569 Fairgrounds Blvd) unless posted otherwise, and the Friday afternoon public skate session specifically parks at Gate 4.
Source checked · · Official source
Accessibility
The rink welcomes skaters with disabilities to the ice. Anyone needing a mobility device on the ice should mention it when buying a ticket, and wheelchair access to the ice itself is granted at management's discretion for safety.
Source checked · · Official source
A source check records what the rink published on that date. Session-specific booking details take precedence.