Ice rink in Ostend will be there anyway: “covered and smaller”

The city and the Christmas market organizer of Winter in the Park are taking energy-efficient measures: the track will be covered, it will be smaller and the light tunnel in the shopping street has been completely removed.

“We have contracts that must be adhered to. The most important thing is that we have agreed with the organizer that the ice rink will be smaller, more energy efficient and that the energy bill is not for the taxpayer, but for the organizer,” explains Bart Tommelein, the mayor of Ostend.

The chillers are new and are becoming more sustainable. The Ostend ice rink of 1,000 square meters is reduced in size, but remains afloat, with real ice, but covered and optimally insulated. Quinten Goekint of the organization Winter in the Park: “You should not underestimate what a Christmas market, in any city, means for local trade, for the catering industry…”

Other cities are now also making a trade-off between conviviality and saving. In Nieuwpoort and Bruges, for example, they are switching to roller skates. In De Panne, there is still no decision about the Christmas market.