Cardiff’s Winter Wonderland, one of the city’s most popular winter events, has seen its best season to date with record amounts of ticket sales and attendees.

The key attraction at this year’s event was the brand-new Alpine Trail. A UK first, the Alpine Trail is an open-air ice-skating experience running 250m long, making it one of the longest Ice Trails in Europe. The next closest ice trail? Vienna.

The Alpine Trail proved popular amongst visitors. With a record amount of tickets sold, the booking office sold out every weekend session available for ice skating, with high demand on weekdays also.

The Trail wasn’t the only new feature at this year’s Cardiff Winter Wonderland. A new Big Wheel was also introduced this year with accessible carriages for wheelchair users, meaning that everybody could enjoy the views from the top of the attraction.

Returning favourites such as the double-storey ‘Sur La Piste’ bar and live-entertainment area was also a hit with visitors, especially on New Years Eve. This year’s event saw showman James Williams headline the evening, with a stream of live entertainment throughout the day. The line-up included Leighton Jones Music, Princess Elsa and Magician & Mentalist Adam James Reeves, who have all been festive-favourites with Winter Wonderland crowds since opening in November.

Norman George of Sayers Events said:

“We are over the moon with the reaction to the brand-new Alpine Trail at this year’s Cardiff Winter Wonderland. We work hard to ensure that every year is better than the last, and the visitor numbers reflect this. We opened earlier than ever this year, and tickets have sold out for every single weekend. Whilst the Drop Tower last year was a popular attraction, increasing accessibility was also really important to us this year and so we invested in a new accessible Big Wheel in place of last year’s ride. We’ve had some great feedback this year and look to impress in future years to come.”