Lord of the Ice

To the joy of some, and to the detriment of others, the long awaited ice-skating rink in Winter Square, St. Petersburg, has finally opened. The proposal of this ice-skating rink caused (and is still causing!) a chasm between two different views of the city: Is it bad taste to erect an ice-skating rink amongst Heritage listed buildings? Is it disrespectful of the generations of ‘Culture’ that passed this way? Shouldn’t the city finally embrace modern perceptions of utilising public space? Well, my brother and I received a special invitation to the opening, and these questions seemed rather distant amongst the fanfare, glitz, and childish delight of the opening.

Olympic champions, such as Ilia Averbukh, Alexei Yagudin and stars, such as Valerie Sutkin,

Ingoboga Dapkunayte, and Valentina Matvienko, the Mayor of St. Petersburg, participated in all the madcap activities, which welcomed the biggest outdoor ice-skating rink in Europe, and given our national love for ice-skating we will use it for all sorts of odds and ends.

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