Nou Barris will be left without its popular ice rink this Christmas. Despite the success of the public and the satisfaction of the merchants, this year they will opt for a strategy more focused on the closest neighborhood.
The ice rink at the Jardins de Can Xiringoi will be replaced by a children's park with workshops related to commerce and a series of sustainable and ecological attractions in the Plaza de Garrigó, according to Betevé.
Apart from economic issues or how the schedules of the change of municipal government have affected planning, merchants believe that the time has come to try other options.
“We have always been very satisfied with the ice rink but it was difficult to quantify the impact on sales. The objective was to attract people from outside Nou Barris, and they came from Sant Andreu and Horta, but from the rest of Barcelona it was more complicated. Given the limitations we had, we have opted for a point of attraction aimed at the closest neighbors,” says Jesús Mir, manager of Fabra Centre.
The premiere of this activity park is scheduled for December 27 and will last until January 4. It will not be installed in the Can Xiringoi Gardens, but in the Plaza de Garrigó. The main reason is that one of the partners in the campaign, the Eix Maragall, is not participating this year. The other three—Fabra Centre, Entorns Virrei and Eix 9 Barris—will seek to energize the southern area of the district.
"They will be activities more linked to commerce, like setting up a store, for example," explains Mir. On the contrary, access to sustainable attractions, which will not be powered by electricity, will have a “sustainable price”, but will also be free with the discounts obtained with purchases at associated businesses.
