One thing that coronavirus won’t ruin this winter is the return of the evocative and popular Ice Castles, which open at 6 p.m. Friday, Jan. 22 at the Geneva National Resort.
Tickets go on sale online on Tuesday morning.
After debuting along Lake Geneva in 2019, last year the castles moved to the edge of nearby Lake Como.
According to event organizers, the Ice Castles will have reduced capacity to allow for social distancing and tunnels and crawl spaces will be marked as one-way to avoid face to face contact between guests. All staff and guests over the age of 2 will be required to wear masks.
This year, there will also be a VIP room, according to Geneva National ...
As always, construction of the ice castles – which involves growing as many as 10,000 icicles a day – is weather dependent, as is the opening of the castles.
Tickets can also be secured via the Geneva National overnight package, details of which can be found here.
"We are thrilled to welcome families back to Ice Castles at Geneva National Resort this winter," said Kyle Standifird, CEO of the Utah-based Ice Castles in a statement.
"The safety of our guests and staff has always been our top priority, and the new features and guidelines we have in place this season are designed to create a safe and magical environment for everyone."
If you’re looking to maximize the fun quotient of your visit, this year Lake Geneva Winterfest, including the annual U.S. National Snow Sculpting Championship, runs Feb. 3-7 in Downtown Lake Geneva.
“We are excited to provide a venue for fresh-air adventure and an amazing lakefront landscape that accentuates the magic of this one-of-a-kind outdoor attraction,” said Garth Chambers, president of Paloma Resort Properties, owner/manager of Destination Geneva National.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He can be heard weekly on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories.
