Festive Ice Skating Returns to Times Square in Newcastle

The Life’s Ice Rink has returned for another festive season, with Figure Skater Callum Leach officially opening the rink.

Transcript

00:01Christmas has officially kicked off in Newcastle with the festive lights now

00:04switched on and the live ice rink now open. Ice skating has become a firm

00:09festive staple but for 2025 they've been keen to shake things up a little. This

00:14year they've introduced a range of themed events to give the winter

00:17classic a fresh twist. Tonight we have got the launch of our annual festive ice

00:22rink so we've got a brass band, we've got a figure skater and we've got hot

00:27chocolates as well. The ice rink in Times Square has become you know part of the

00:33Newcastle City's festive offer hasn't it? It becomes a seasonal event in Newcastle

00:38for me the launch of the ice rink is the start of Christmas and it's been here

00:43since we've been here and it's just lovely that we've got families keep

00:46coming back and coming back. So we've got events on weekly and all of them with a

00:51different theme I think the marketing team have had a lot of fun with them so

00:54we've got noughties on ice, we've got Taylor Swift on ice, we've got K-pop on ice, we've

00:58got a wicked themed ice skating event as well, karaoke, so there's all sorts to

01:05please everybody. I think I'm very excited to see people try and defy gravity on the ice rink

01:13but it does it just gives a bit of a theme for people to just have fun with and you

01:18know if you love Taylor Swift, come and fall over whilst listening to some Taylor Swift as well.

01:25The evening was filled with festivities getting everyone in the mood for the Christmas season.

01:31Figure skater Callum Leach officially opened the rink. The former British National Championship

01:36junior skater is from the North East and has performed across Europe, America and Asia so it

01:42was fitting for him to be the first person to skate on the rink for 2025, performing a festive routine.

01:49I am from Coloco, so I'm local to the area and I've always came to skate here at the

01:55Life Centre ice rink ever since I was a young child and so it's so amazing getting to perform

02:00here in front of the crowd for the launch of the outdoor ice rink. So I started skating at the age of

02:07nine at Whitley Bay ice rink and then I competed up until I was 19 and then I competed at junior

02:14national. So in the next three weeks I'm going to be embarking on a European tour and I'll be

02:20traveling around France over Christmas time and then the Netherlands and Spain and then finishing

02:25in the UK unfortunately not Newcastle but I'll be finishing in the UK and then closing the show

02:31out at Wembe Arena in London which is so amazing. So that's what my year is looking like from now on.

02:36Like having that ice rink right in the centre of Newcastle is amazing so it gets you get people

02:42from all over you got people from Sunderland coming from Durham and so it's an amazing opportunity for

02:46everyone to come here and skate. Oh absolutely yeah getting all the all the festivities here and

02:51watching all the Christmas films and yeah getting really into the spirit. It's so nice to be home at

02:55this time you'd be at.