Spruce Street Harbor Park, Riverfront Roller Rink to Open Memorial Day Weekend

Spruce Street Harbor Park image courtesy Delaware River Waterfront Corporation

Spruce Street Harbor Park is coming back. And this year, it will be open a month longer — and there will be a roller rink right next door.

Mayor Nutter, along with with Delaware River Waterfront Corporation officials and corporate sponsors, announced this afternoon details on the second summer of Spruce Street Harbor Park. It will open May 22nd, a month earlier than last year, and will stay open until the end of September.

Also opening Memorial Day weekend is Blue Cross RiverRink Summerfest—a roller-skating rink that complements the ice rink housed at Penn’s Landing every winter. “The development and additions to the Delaware River Waterfront in recent years is truly remarkable,” Nutter said in a statement. “Philadelphians and visitors alike have a new area of the city to explore and enjoy.

Summerfest rendering courtesy of Groundswell Design Group

The Garces Group will once again handle the catering for Spruce Street Harbor Park, which can stay open that extra month this year due to the sponsorship of Univest/Valley Green Bank. (Jay Goldstein, vice chairman of the DRWC board, is president of Valley Green Bank.) Plantings this year were donated by the Art Museum — they are all being repurposed from Sol LeWitt’s temporary installation Lines in Four Directions in Flowers.

Otherwise, SSHP will be more of the same: There will again be three floating barges with beer and food options, there will again be a boardwalk with family-friendly activities and there will again be hammocks. There will be more hammocks this year, actually — the footprint of the park is expanding slightly, and the DWRC is also adding “bistro tables, Adirondack chairs, and picnic tables.” A series of concerts and other events are also planned for the park.

The roller rink — the first outdoor roller rink in Philadelphia — will also be open from May 22nd to the end of September. The Lodge, popular at Winterfest, will be re-done with a summer theme. “An island in the center of the roller rink will add a design element not seen at other rinks,” per a press release. “The leafy space will not only provide shade and seating, but will also help will rain collection.”

As is true with the winter ice rink, all Independence Blue Cross cardholders get free skating admission.