Hobart's plans for city centre ice-skating

A plan to build an ice-skating rink in Hobart's Mawson Place will be fast-tracked while Hobart City Council continues to work out the best ways to boost winter events and tourism.
Hobart City Council's winter activation report, which outlines plans for a three-day Hobart Winter Festival and other cold-weather events involving music and comedy and perhaps a beer festival, is now being workshopped.
Hobart Lord Mayor Damon Thomas said the report was being workshopped because of the huge number of ideas which had been put forward to get people flocking to central Hobart, irrespective of the weather. However, Lord Mayor Thomas said the ice-skating rink proposal would now be dealt with as a stand-alone project so it could become a reality faster.
The developer of the proposed rink is expected to outline his plans next week and the plans are expected to go before the council next month.
Lord Mayor Thomas is upbeat about prospects for winter tourism stating "we need to ignore the weather and concentrate on events to give Hobart the lift it needs in winter."
Last year Lord Mayor Thomas asked for a report to be prepared to explore the opportunity of conducting a three-day Hobart Winter Festival on the Queen's Birthday long weekend in June this year.
From there, the idea of a new event-focused brand of winter tourism to promote Hobart, its waterfront and mountain, has blossomed.
In his original motion, Lord Mayor Thomas said the city centre was the destination of choice in summer but central Hobart was seen as a place to avoid and escape from in winter.
He said there had also been no attempt to link Hobart with outlying winter drawcards like Mt Field National Park.
Hobart City Council has committed extra funds to the Festival of Voices, which runs from 6th to 14th July to extend it outside the Sullivans Cove area and it is also in talks with the Hobart Comedy Festival.
A funding proposal will be considered next month.