You want to take the family skating this weekend, and you need three things fast: which Nashville rinks have public skating, when the sessions actually run, and what it costs once everyone is laced up. The short answer is that the Nashville area has five reliable year-round indoor rinks with public skate sessions, plus a couple of seasonal holiday rinks that open in winter, and almost all of them post their schedules on a calendar or a booking app that changes month to month. That last detail is the one that trips people up, so this guide pulls everything into one place: every rink, how its public skate works, what it costs, and how to lock in a session before you load the car.
Nashville is not a giant skating town the way Minneapolis or Boston is, but it is a well-covered one. Between the Predators-managed Centennial rink near downtown, the three Ford Ice Centers spread around the metro, and the Williamson County rink in Nolensville, you are rarely more than a short drive from a public session.
Where can you public skate in Nashville?
Public skating in Nashville runs at five year-round indoor rinks: Centennial Sportsplex (the city's main public rink, near downtown), the three Ford Ice Center locations (Bellevue, Antioch, and Clarksville), and Gary Force Acura Ice Arena in Nolensville. In the winter, two or three seasonal rinks open as well: a holiday rink at the Gaylord Opryland Resort, an outdoor rink downtown, and a seasonal rink down in Murfreesboro. The year-round indoor rinks are your dependable option in any season, including the warm months when no outdoor ice could survive a Tennessee summer.
The single habit that makes all of this easy: every rink posts public-skate times on its own schedule, and those times shift from one month to the next, so confirm the day before you drive over rather than trusting last month's pattern. A Saturday afternoon slot that existed in January may be a hockey block in March. The rinks are upfront about this, which is why each one points you to a live calendar or a booking app rather than printing a fixed weekly schedule.
What "public skating" actually means
Before you read a single rink schedule, it helps to know what you are looking for, because not every hour a rink is open is an hour you can skate. A sheet of ice gets divided into very different blocks across a day, and only some of them welcome walk-up or drop-in skaters.
Public skate, sometimes called open skate, is the session you want: open to everyone, you pay admission, and you skate freely around the rink with other people. The other blocks you will see on a Nashville schedule include hockey practices and games, adult open hockey and stick and puck (casual hockey time that still is not a public skate), figure skating and freestyle practice ice (reserved for skaters working on programs), and learn-to-skate classes for registered students. When you scan a calendar, you are hunting specifically for the words "public skate," "open skate," or "public session." If you are new to the whole experience and want to know what a session feels like once you are on the ice, our guide on what to expect at a public skate walks through the entire thing from the rental counter to your first lap.
Centennial Sportsplex: Nashville's main public rink
Centennial Sportsplex Ice Arenas is Nashville's most central public ice, across the street from Centennial Park just west of downtown. The Nashville Predators assumed management of ice operations on May 1, 2026. The rink has two full-size sheets measuring 200 feet by 85 feet each, with public skating typically on Rink A while hockey, lessons, and academy sessions share both sheets.
Centennial base admission verified October 1, 2026 is $12 for ages 13+ and $10 for youth, military, college students, and seniors. Confirm rental charges, spectator admission, and youngest-child admission in the selected DaySmart session; those policies are not verified.
Public-skate schedules, registration, and waivers now run through Predators DaySmart. Open the current Centennial listing before you go, since camps and other programs can alter the schedule. Nashville Skating Academy publishes freestyle ice, lessons, and classes through its separate Centennial Finnly portal. The former on-site pro shop and skate-sharpening service closed during the management transition, even though older Metro pages may still list it.
The Ford Ice Centers: Bellevue, Antioch, and Clarksville
The Nashville Predators Foundation runs three Ford Ice Center rinks across the metro, and they share a booking system, so once you learn one you know all three. The key difference from Centennial is that Ford Ice public skates are reservation-based and booked online through the DASH by DaySmart Recreation app or website, rather than a walk-up window. Create an account, find a public skate session, and reserve your spot before you go. Public skate at the Ford Ice rinks runs about $10.98 for a matinee session and $13.73 for an evening session, plus tax, with skate rental included.
Ford Ice Center Bellevue
Ford Ice Center Bellevue sits about 14 minutes west of downtown and is the most convenient Ford Ice location for anyone on the west side of the city. It is a modern twin-rink facility, which means more total ice and more public-skate windows on the calendar than a single sheet would allow. As with all three, reserve your session on DaySmart ahead of time.
Ford Ice Center Antioch
Ford Ice Center Antioch is roughly 22 minutes south of downtown and is the largest of the three Ford locations, with multiple sheets that host everything from learn-to-skate to tournament hockey. For families in the southeast metro, Antioch is usually the closest Ford Ice option, and the same DaySmart reservation flow applies.
Ford Ice Center Clarksville
Ford Ice Center Clarksville is the outlier of the group, about 45 minutes north of Nashville inside F&M Bank Arena in downtown Clarksville. For anyone in Clarksville or Montgomery County, this is the place to ice skate in Clarksville, full stop. It opened in 2023 as part of the downtown arena and runs the same Ford Ice public-skate model: matinee and evening sessions, skate rental included, booked through DaySmart. Because it is a single sheet shared with hockey and figure skating, the public-skate calendar is tighter than at the twin-rink locations, so reserving ahead matters even more here.
Gary Force Acura Ice Arena: Nolensville
Gary Force Acura Ice Arena is the Williamson County option, an NHL-size rink in Nolensville that has served the fast-growing communities south of Nashville since 2021. It is home to youth hockey and an adult league, and it runs public skate, stick and puck, and freestyle sessions, all registered through the events calendar on the rink's official website.
Gary Force does not post public-skate prices openly online, so the move here is to open the events calendar, find the session you want, and confirm the cost and any reservation requirement at booking. If you cannot find a public-skate time right away, check the calendar again closer to your target week, since sessions are posted and adjusted regularly. For families on the southern edge of the metro, in Nolensville, Brentwood, or Franklin, Gary Force is often the closest sheet of ice, and the NHL-size surface is a real one, not a cramped studio rink.
Seasonal and holiday skating in Nashville
Gaylord Opryland has announced outdoor skating at Pinetop for November 6, 2026 through January 2, 2027, with advance online tickets and separate parking fees. The 2026–27 Smashville and Fountains skating seasons are unconfirmed; check operator announcements before planning a trip.
Gaylord Opryland has announced outdoor skating at Pinetop for November 6, 2026 through January 2, 2027, with advance online tickets and separate parking fees. The 2026–27 Smashville and Fountains skating seasons are unconfirmed; check operator announcements before planning a trip.
How much does public skating cost in Nashville?
Centennial base admission verified October 1, 2026 is $12 for ages 13+ and $10 for youth, military, college students, and seniors. Confirm rental charges, spectator admission, and youngest-child admission in the selected DaySmart session; those policies are not verified. Ford Ice lists matinee and evening pricing; Gary Force confirms its rate at booking.
Calculate the family total from the selected session, including rentals, tax, and non-skating guests. See Nashville skating costs for the comparison.
How to read the schedules and book a session
Two booking patterns cover the year-round metro rinks. Centennial and the three Ford Ice rinks use DASH by DaySmart Recreation, where you create an account, find the correct location and session, complete the waiver, and register before you arrive. Gary Force uses the events calendar on its own website for public skate, stick and puck, and freestyle.
In every case, weekend sessions are the busiest and fill up first, so booking or arriving early pays off. And it bears repeating, because it is the one thing that ruins a planned outing: the schedule you saw last month is not the schedule this month. Pull up the current calendar or app the day you plan to go, confirm the specific session, and then drive over.
Which Nashville rink is right for you?
If you are choosing between rinks, a few simple rules help:
- Central Nashville: Centennial Sportsplex. Confirm the session, registration, and admission terms in DaySmart.
- West side of the metro: Ford Ice Center Bellevue, about 14 minutes west of downtown.
- Southeast metro: Ford Ice Center Antioch, the largest Ford location.
- Williamson County, Nolensville, Brentwood, Franklin: Gary Force Acura Ice Arena.
- Clarksville and north: Ford Ice Center Clarksville at F&M Bank Arena.
- Murfreesboro and south, in winter: the seasonal Fountains at Gateway rink.
- A holiday memory rather than a practice session: the Gaylord Opryland resort rink or the downtown outdoor rink.
If your goal is regular skating, whether that is learn-to-skate for the kids or weekly practice between lessons, a year-round indoor rink is the right home base, and the closest one to you usually beats a slightly nicer one farther away. Our guides on getting your child started on the ice and ice skating with the whole family go deeper on building that habit.
What to bring and what to expect your first time
A public skate is a low-stakes outing, but a little prep makes the first one smoother. Wear long pants and socks that come above the boot, bring gloves since hands hit the ice during falls and the rail is cold, and dress in layers, because indoor ice stays cold in every season and a rink lobby gets colder over an hour than you expect. Plan to rent skates your first few times rather than buying, and confirm rental charges for the selected session. Arrive early enough to get fitted, swap a pair that pinches, and lace up before the ice fills, because a snug skate that supports your ankle is the difference between a fun session and a frustrating one.
If you have never skated, spend your first few minutes near the wall getting your feet under you, then take a few steps out into open ice. Bend your knees, keep your weight a little forward, and when in doubt bend more, since tall and stiff is how people fall. A first session that ends with a smile and a "can we come back" is a short one, so do not try to close down the rink. For the full first-timer walkthrough, our step-by-step guide on how to ice skate covers balance, gliding, stopping, and getting up after a fall.
Tips for a good public skate session
A few habits make any Nashville public skate smoother:
- Confirm the session the day you plan to go, since all of these schedules shift month to month.
- For the three Ford Ice rinks, reserve online through DaySmart ahead of time rather than counting on a walk-up spot.
- For Centennial, check the selected DaySmart session and register before travelling.
- Bring gloves, dress in layers, and pack a warm layer for any non-skaters who are just there to watch.
- If you are bringing a brand-new skater, ask at the desk whether skating aids are available, and consider a helmet for the youngest kids.
- Keep the first session short and end on a high note.
Nashville has five year-round indoor options. Pick the rink closest to you and confirm the session and rental terms. Start with the Nashville ice skating guide, or browse all rinks.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where can I go public ice skating in Nashville?
Nashville has five year-round indoor rinks with public skating: Centennial Sportsplex near downtown, the three Ford Ice Center locations (Bellevue, Antioch, and Clarksville), and Gary Force Acura Ice Arena in Nolensville. Two or three seasonal holiday rinks open in winter as well. Centennial and Ford Ice use DaySmart, while Gary Force uses its own online events calendar.
How much does public skating cost in Nashville?
Centennial base admission verified October 1, 2026 is $12 for ages 13+ and $10 for youth, military, college students, and seniors. Confirm rental charges, spectator admission, and youngest-child admission in the selected DaySmart session; those policies are not verified. Ford Ice lists matinee and evening rates plus tax; Gary Force confirms rates at booking.
Do I need a reservation to ice skate in Nashville?
Plan to book online. Centennial and the three Ford Ice Center rinks use DASH by DaySmart Recreation for schedules, registration, and waivers. Gary Force registers public skate, stick and puck, and freestyle sessions through the events calendar on its website.
Can you ice skate in Nashville in the summer?
Yes. The five year-round indoor rinks run public skating in every season, including summer, because they control their own ice. The outdoor and holiday rinks are winter-only, so for a warm-weather skate, choose an indoor rink like Centennial Sportsplex or a Ford Ice Center.
Where can I ice skate in Clarksville, TN?
Ford Ice Center Clarksville, inside F&M Bank Arena in downtown Clarksville, is the main place to ice skate in Clarksville. It runs public skate sessions, about $10.98 matinee and $13.73 evening with skates included, booked through the DaySmart app. It opened in 2023 as part of the downtown arena.
Which Nashville rink is best for a first-timer?
Centennial Sportsplex is the most central first stop, with two full-size sheets and a long history of public skating. Create a DaySmart account before your visit, confirm the current Centennial session, and check the page's Skate Status note for known changes.
How do I find this week's public skate schedule?
Each rink posts its own schedule. Centennial and the three Ford Ice rinks use DaySmart Recreation, and Gary Force uses the events calendar on its site. Schedules change, so always confirm the specific day before you go rather than assuming last month's times still hold.
Is there outdoor or holiday ice skating in Nashville?
In winter, yes. The Gaylord Opryland Resort opens a holiday rink as part of its Christmas programming, there is a seasonal outdoor rink downtown, and Murfreesboro runs a seasonal outdoor rink to the south. All are winter-only and closed the rest of the year, so confirm opening dates before you visit, and use the year-round indoor rinks outside the holiday season.
More Nashville and Franklin skating guides
Round out the trip with learn to skate in Nashville, ice skating birthday parties in Nashville, ice skating in Nashville with kids, indoor ice skating in Nashville, and ice skating near Franklin.
Centennial price source
Base admission checked October 1, 2026 against the official DaySmart listings linked on the Centennial rink page. Rental inclusion, spectator admission, and youngest-child admission remain unverified.