Ice Castles and Ice Fest Returning for 2026
Rick Langenberg
Just on the eve of the 34th-anniversary of limited stakes gambling, the city of Cripple Creek got a dose of more promising economic news, and more indications that the town is wagering with a super-hot deck of special event cards
At their most recent Sept. 17 council meeting, City Administrator Frank Salvato stated that the Ice Castles attraction will be returning for a third season, a development that is more than welcome news for local casinos, businesses, restaurants and residents and visitors. Moreover, he noted that this year’s return of the winter wonderland, fantasy display, could feature new pyrotechnics, “involving flames” of some kind. “Fire and Ice,” yelled one ecstatic council member, in expressing much excitement over the news.
The city council has greeted Ice Castles with open arms since negotiations started occurring several years ago.
Around this time of year, it is always touch and go regarding whether the Utah-based Ice Castles, LLC will be coming back to Colorado. The local Ice Castles group is quite fond of its Cripple Creek attraction, but the corporate decision often comes down to dollars and cents and dealing with a variety of sites across the country.
Salvato said more details would be outlined in October, but he noted that the company tries to do something different every year. A pyrotechnical aspect to the attraction could definitely bring more visitors. The city administrator stated that 2026 represents the final year of a three-year contract.
During the debut 2023/2024 year, the Ice Castles attraction succeeded in selling more than 130,000 tickets, noted the city administrator, in a bonanza season capped by ideal winter weather and visitation numbers that rivaled the peak of the summer. Hwy. 67 during many afternoons and early evenings was saturated with traffic.
Last year, the attractions didn’t quite command the same sensation, especially with much publicity over a second site in Colorado. According to Salvato, Ice Castles netted about 95,000 paid tickets in the 2024/2025 season.
Still, these figures are much higher than earlier projections, when the attraction was being planned in the gaming community.
More specifically, Salvato said the city, casinos and Ice Castles is on board with continuing their current arrangement. The city and gaming community help foot the bill for the water necessary for Ice Castles. Construction of the Ice Castles attraction, highlighted by an array of arches, tunnels and slides in an area overlooking the downtown, will occur in late October.
In an announcement several days later, the Ice Castles company confirmed this news, and announced plans to open up another Colorado site at Silverthorne. It won’t, though, be returning to a location started last year in Eagle, not that far from the Vail ski resort. Company officials are quite enthused about returning to Silverthorne, a resort-like setting off Interstate 70. Silverthorne is the locale where the attraction actually got its initial start. More specifically, this site is part of a partnership with Outlets at Silverthorne.
Silverthorne “was where our first commercial Ice Castles came to life,” said Brent Christensen, the owner of Ice Castles and the visionary behind the attraction, who actually started the concept out of his backyard in Utah. “Celebrating 15 years of magic here feels like coming full circle,” said Christensen.
Company officials, though, were equally bullish about their Cripple Creek site, noting they have been very well received in the gaming community.
Although ticket sales were slightly down last year, the town was more prepared for the Ice Castles sensation, with restaurants able to handle the extra flow of winter customers better and the addition of more food outlets.
One advantage Cripple Creek has over other Ice Castles sites is that it can open for business earlier in December and stay open longer. It typically opens for the season in Cripple Creek in mid-December.
Cripple Creek Ice Fest on Track
Although the two aren’t related, the stage is also set for a return of the town’s most popular winter event, the two-week long Cripple Creek Ice Fest, featuring ice sculptures created by expert carvers from all parts of the country on Bennett Avenue, usually outlining a specific theme. Similar to Ice Castles, this involves more of a partnership between the casinos and the city.
Actually, the Ice Fest event is a festival that attracted the attention of key representatives from Ice Castles. After visiting Cripple Creek during the event, company officials mulled the idea of re-starting a Colorado Ice Castles site.
The company had earlier tried a location in Dillon, which got a cold response by many locals there. Then, the COVID epidemic sidelined their plans for several years.
The birth of the site in Cripple Creek represented a grant return to Colorado for Ice Castles.
