The Rink at Rockefeller Center Opens Its 90th Season in Midtown, NYC

The Rink at Rockefeller Center opened for the season on Saturday, October 10, marking its 90th year as a Midtown winter tradition. According to ABC7 New York and NBC New York, the first skaters took to the ice at 9 a.m., and both outlets frame the opening as one of the first signs of the holiday season in the city.

The rink is open every day. Tickets start at $22 per person, and both reports point readers to Rockefeller Center's official website for tickets and further information.

The opening is paired with a public art installation on Center Plaza. Artist Kenny Scharf is showing "Scary and the Dancers!", an exhibition built around a 34-foot-tall inflatable sculpture and his cartoon-inspired imagery. A live painting session with Scharf was scheduled for the opening morning.

For younger visitors, the installation includes Art Sundae, a free children's art workshop presented with Art Production Fund. The workshops run every Saturday in October.

The setting is part of the appeal. The rink sits below Paul Manship's gilded Prometheus sculpture, an image long associated with New York's winter season and familiar to many visitors from abroad. This year's 90th season adds an anniversary note to a routine many New Yorkers treat as a seasonal marker, arriving ahead of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.

For Japanese readers planning a trip to New York in the colder months, the rink is one of the city's best-known outdoor experiences, and the $22 starting price gives a baseline for planning. Tickets are sold through Rockefeller Center's official site.

(Details are drawn from points that agree across reports by ABC7 New York, NBC New York.)