Chelsea Curling Fest 2025

Our first experience with curling came at the inaugural Chelsea Curling Fest in 2018. It was outside, using homemade curling stones. While watching was a lot of fun, the weather was warm-ish, making for poor ice conditions. Fast-forward to 2025, and the Chelsea Curling Fest is climate-controlled and better than ever.

Ideal Climate

Chelsea Curling Fest is now held indoors at the fantastic Arctic Coliseum. This huge venue has multiple hockey rinks and a top-notch sports bar and event room on the top floor called Arctic Breakaway. This allows you a perch to watch the action on the rink or multi-task and watch the game on one of several television screens.

As with prior years, the slots for participants sold out in record time. If you missed signing up to curl, there was an option to spectate and enjoy some fabulous pizza made in-house at the Arctic Breakaway. On top of curling, the other half of the rink was open for skating.

New Stones

On top of the controlled climate, Chelsea Curling Fest now has real stones. These are the same beautiful rocks that they use in the Olympic Games. To help sort out the technique and the basics of the game, instructors are on hand to help you learn and have fun.

If you are wondering what curling is and its history, there is a great article on the Olympics site. In a nutshell, the Scots started this game almost 500 years ago. It could be earlier, but the evidence is scarce. Roughly, the goal of the game of curling is to put your stones closer to the bull’s eye (aka the “button”) than the other team. Easy right?

Watching folks get acquainted with the mechanics of the game, I was impressed. When you watch curling on TV, they make it look easy. However, watching in person gives you a clear picture of how tough it can be. There is quite a bit of balance and technique required. Regardless of the effort involved, the players and spectators at the Chelsea Curling Fest had a blast.

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Chelsea Curling Fest 2025