View of the rink from the Sky Lounge;
As surely as autumn follows summer, the "Rentrée des Classes" (return to school) follows the Schueberfouer.
Traditionally tied in with the obligatory return to Luxembourg for the new school year, on Sunday 15 September 2024, the City of Luxembourg (Ville de Luxembourg) will re-open its doors to the public ice rink at Kockelscheuer until end of season on 15 April 2025.
To find out more about this Luxembourgish institution, Chronicle.lu caught up with facility manager Lex Fautsch in his office at the rink.
Mr Fautsch has been rink manager twice, his first stint having run from 1997 to 2000, and then for his second spell, following a period working overseas, from 2010 until the present day. He told Chronicle.lu a little about the history of the rink, which was first opened in 1974 as a single ice rink with a separate curling sheet behind it. This remained the case until a second, full sized rink was opened in 2006, almost exclusively as a training rink for the ice sport clubs.
Until now, the three separate sheets of ice have all been cooled as a single unit, which has meant that, in order to ensure the longevity of the core concrete base of the original rink, the ice has been routinely melted in early May every year for maintenance work to take place over the summer, prior to the annual reopening on 15 September. While this is necessary for the original rink, whose base is now celebrating its half-century, advances in concrete technology mean that the 2006 base of the second rink is not subject to those same constraints, and only needs a full melt every five to six years. In 2018, the rink management team and the City of Luxembourg embarked on a huge exercise to modify the technical infrastructure to allow each ice sheet to be frozen or melted independently, thus allowing the new rink to remain open throughout the summer for at least four out of every five years. The fruits of this labour, which came at a cost of some €2 million were finally harvested in summer 2024, during which the ice sport clubs have been able to continue training and run summer camps on ice here in Luxembourg for the very first time. Additionally, a set of stands has been installed in the club rink to allow for improved viewing comfort and, more importantly, free circulation around the perimeter of the rink itself for skaters and support staff.
Lex Fautsch is passionate about reducing the external energy consumption of the rink, which is significant. As a part of the works on the cooling system, the infrastructure for a new heat pump system has been installed, which, once it becomes operational, targeted for 2026, will allow waste heat which is in the range of 25° to 35° to be heated to 80° and used elsewhere in the facility, for example for heating the water for the showers.
When the rink was first planned over 50 years ago, it was envisaged that there would be a footfall of around 40,000 visitors per annum. Over the years its popularity has grown to the extent that the ice sports infrastructure now hosts some 160,000 skaters every year, which has become a significant logistical challenge. Daily attendance can peak at 2,500 skaters. In order to smooth the flow of visitors, work it is planned to re-position the skate rental area closer to the changing rooms. This re-imagining of the foyer area should also help improve the increased flow of spectators which is anticipated as a result of the promotion of the Tornado Luxembourg ice hockey team to the French Division 2 for the 24/25 season.
Other changes which have taken place will not be so visible, but are also important. The press box above the public rink has been transformed into what is now known as the "Sky Lounge", a multi-purpose area which can be reserved for children's parties or used as a VIP area for hockey matches, or, with its audio-visual infrastructure, can be used as a space for team meetings or corporate events. This space can be rented for €100 per hour, with catering (whether on-site or brought in) not included. Additionally, there have been markings introduced under the ice which will allow curling also to take place on the training rink.
The onsite café remains active, with drinks, snacks, grills and real Italian espresso coffee served by Mario and his team.
Despite the huge number of visitors over the course of the season, one thing that has not (yet) changed is the pricing structure. The current entry price remains at €3 per day for children and €4 per day for adults. It also has an adjacent park and ride car park with electric charging points, plus the bus terminus (No.s 18 and 27) next to it.
For those who are interested in giving their children (or even themselves) some basic skating training but do not wish to go as far as registering with one of the ice clubs, the Pingo skating school,which hosts 5,000 skaters per year and has fifteen freelance training staff, will once again be open for registration via the rink website. Previous visitors to the website will notice that a number of improvements have been made to the booking and registration areas of the site in particular.
(Pictured: Lex Fautsch (L) and the team)
