The Rink at Sugar Hill becomes tradition in Gwinnett and beyond

“This is where they learned to skate,” their mom said. “They beg us to bring them every year.”

That out-of-town traffic might be part of the reason Sugar Hill’s ice rink in a tent is doing so well for the third year in a row.

Daniel Ferguson and his wife, Carmelia Ferguson, own Have an Ice Day, the company that runs the rink. He said he’s been surprised by how much word of mouth and social media shout outs have grown the 3-year-old rink.

“We’ve increased the number of skaters dramatically,” Ferguson said.

The Fergusons are busy operating the rink from its opening Nov. 11 until its closing Feb. 19. But they’re the busiest right now, since most schools are on holiday break. And it’s not just local students enjoying a day on the ice over their break.

Jonah Lucas, 8, and his brother Will Lucas, 6, came to Georgia from Maryland to visit family. Their mom, Morgan, said skating was their last hoorah before heading home and going back to school Jan. 2.

“I think everybody’s enjoying so far,” she said. “They keep trying. Even though they keep falling, they keep getting up and trying again.”

Ferguson said he’s noticed the out-of-town traffic coming through the rink this year.

“They can’t believe there’s an ice rink in the South like this,” he said.

Skaters at the Sugar Hill rink can glide around a 60-by-120-foot ice rink, which Ferguson said he believes to be one of the biggest outdoor rinks in the South. The ice is encased in a canvas tent and cooled with a 200-ton chiller unit.

But Ferguson said it’s still hard to keep the ice from melting in the 60-degree and hotter weather Georgia’s been experiencing lately.

“When you combine high humidity and high temperature, it’s difficult,” he admitted.

The ice was melting a bit Tuesday. Staff pushed water to the edges of the rink with industrial-sized brooms, but the young skaters wobbling nearby didn’t seem to care.

It’s not the only challenge Have an Ice Day has faced operating Sugar Hill’s rink. The rink has moved locations each year it has been in town. It was first constructed in 2014 at the same location it’s at now, but Ferguson said the ground wasn’t level. So the next year the rink moved to a nearby hill on West Broad Street.

In the meantime, the city leveled out the original area, digging a pit where the ice rink can settle each year.

Setbacks haven’t seemed to dampen the rink’s popularity. About 18,000 skaters visited the rink last year, up from about 15,000 the year before. It’ll only be more this year, Ferguson said, many from out of town.

“It’s busy today and it’s not really ice skating weather today,” he said Tuesday.

Tickets to skate at The Rink at Sugar Hill cost $10 for children and $12 for adults, including skate rental. The rink opens most weekdays from 5 to 10 p.m. and most weekends from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

But if you can’t make it this year, Ferguson doesn’t think you should worry. He said the city’s willingness to spend time and money carving out the perfect location for the rink shows it’ll come back for years to come.

“This is going to be a tradition,” he said.