Westfield's Ice Ribbon Costs Less This Winter. The Calendar Is the Hard Part.
October 29, 2026
October 29, 2026
At noon on Saturday, Nov. 21, the season's first session opens on the Ice Ribbon at the north end of Grand Junction Plaza in downtown Westfield. It has room for up to 90 skaters, and every ticket has to be bought online in advance. Everyone pays $10, and that includes skate rental. The rink surface is Glice, a synthetic material that the city says allows skating in any weather. A warm December can't cancel the season.
For households in Bridgewater Club and the rest of west Westfield, the timing that matters comes before opening day. Tickets go on sale by session at 8 a.m. Friday, Nov. 6, according to Indy's Child's 2026-27 skating guide. The regular schedule has 19 dates between Nov. 21 and Jan. 2. Each session holds a set number of skaters, and no tickets are sold at the gate.
The Hamilton County Tourism listing gives the regular skating dates for the 2026–27 season. Here they are by week:
No Sundays are on the list. Neither are Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. Saturday, Dec. 5 is also missing from the regular list, because that's the day of Westfield in Lights on the same plaza. That day gets its own short sessions, covered below.
Session times are posted for the first three dates so far. On opening day, the four 90-minute sessions start at noon, 2 p.m., 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. The day after Thanksgiving has only two, at 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 28 goes back to four sessions, at noon, 2, 4 and 6 p.m. If you plan to visit relatives that Friday and skate after dinner, there are only two time slots to choose from.
Last season, the city charged $12 for skaters 11 and older and $10 for children 10 and under, as announced in its November 2025 release. This season's ticket listing in the Westfield Parks catalog shows one $10 price per attendee, with skate rental included. Processing fees are added at checkout.
For a household with two adults and two children under 11, that works out to $40 before fees this winter, down from $44 last winter. Older kids gain the most. A 12-year-old who paid the adult price last year now pays the same as a younger sibling.
The rest of the 2026 rules, from the Rec1 ticket page:
The toe-pick rule is the one that catches families who own figure skates. If yours have picks, plan on wearing the rentals.
Each session is capped at 90 skaters, and tickets have to be bought online before the session you want. On a four-session Saturday like Nov. 21, that comes to 360 spots for the whole day. On Friday, Nov. 27, it's 180.
The rink is on the small side by design. When it debuted on Nov. 18, 2023, Current described an 8,300-square-foot installation in the plaza's northwest corner: a rink area plus a loop, both made of Glice sheets. This is its fourth winter. The set dates and the size cap are what let a single plaza run it.
Put together, the 19 dates, the cap and online-only sales mean the Ice Ribbon works more like a ticketed outing than a drop-in rink. A Thursday evening in mid-December is easy to book a few days out. The Saturday before Christmas and the weekday afternoons of winter break are the dates to buy early.
The Ice at Carter Green in Carmel also opens Nov. 21. Its season runs through Jan. 31, 2027, four weeks after Westfield's closes, according to the City of Carmel's Oct. 21 release. The two rinks are set up very differently:
| Ice Ribbon, Westfield | The Ice at Carter Green, Carmel | |
|---|---|---|
| Season | Nov. 21 to Jan. 2, on 19 regular dates | Nov. 21 to Jan. 31 |
| Admission, 11 and older | $10, skates included | $11 plus $4 skate rental |
| Admission, 10 and under | $10, skates included | $9 plus $4 skate rental |
| How to buy | Online only, before your session | Online, or at the admissions hut |
| Session cap | 90 skaters | Limited onsite sales |
Carmel's prices above are the ones on the rink's FAQ page right now. Walk-up ticket sales there start half an hour before the first session of the day. Carmel's release still recommends buying ahead to guarantee a spot, because only a limited number of tickets are sold onsite.
For the same family of four renting skates, Carmel comes to $56 at posted prices, and Westfield to $40 before fees. Westfield is cheaper. Carmel is the better fit for a spontaneous Sunday, a free night between Christmas and New Year's, or the second half of January, when Westfield's rink has closed for the season.
The Rec1 ticket page describes Grand Junction Plaza as near the corner of Union Street and State Road 32. It lists the address as 225 N. Union St. The city's own releases have used 225 S. Union St. If your map app gives you two different pins, aim for Union Street just south of SR 32. The rink sits at the north end of the plaza.
For 2026, the ticket page lists free on-street parking along Union Street and Mill Street, plus the public lot at Park and Poplar. Accessible spaces are on Mill Street.
Park Street's reconstruction adds a wrinkle. The city's February 2026 announcement said the work would run until late spring 2027, with Park Street partly open and business access maintained. It listed public parking at a temporary lot on the west end of Park, in The Union garage, where the first three hours are free, and on-street on Mill, Jersey and Union. A 90-minute session plus hot chocolate afterward fits easily inside the garage's free three hours. That plan dates from February, so check the city's current notices before a busy Saturday.
The one December Saturday missing from the regular schedule is the plaza's biggest day of the season. Westfield in Lights runs Saturday, Dec. 5, from 3 to 6 p.m., and it's free. The tourism listing promises holiday performance groups, gift vendors, hot chocolate, beer and food vendors, carnival games, animal meet-and-greets and caricature artists. Indy's Child puts the tree lighting at 6 p.m. and says the city's Westfield in Lights page lists three special skating sessions that day, with a fee. Last year's festival sessions ran 45 minutes each, at 3, 4:15 and 5:30 p.m., per the city's 2025 notice. Check the 2026 times before you count on that pattern.
Families who want a full 90-minute skate and the festival on separate days can book Thursday, Dec. 3 or Friday, Dec. 4. That's the same plaza two days earlier, without the festival crowd.
If seasons like this one are part of why you love the west side of Westfield, I'm always happy to talk about the parts of Hamilton County that make winter here feel like home. William Spencer Jr. is glad to help whenever you're ready. Let's Connect.
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