Thank you for helping make the 2025 Frozen Assets Festival and 5K Run, Walk, and Skate one of the best ever! Throughout the week, Frozen Assets not only brought the community together, but it also educated people and raised awareness for our number one asset – the lakes!
Join Clean Lakes Alliance on Saturday, February 8th from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. for Frozen Assets, with Hosting Sponsor The Edgewater! The family-friendly festival at The Edgewater helps connect the community with the lake through free winter activities. Festival attendees can see large show kites, science demonstrations, and try ice skating and snowshoeing. Festival goers can also enjoy free hot chocolate and more!
Each year, this FUNraiser, FRIENDraiser, and FUNDraiser highlights the year-round value of our lakes, while raising money to protect our waters through lake improvement projects, educational programming, and our volunteer water quality monitoring program. When the lakes freeze in Greater Madison, they become our largest parks. Clean Lakes Alliance hopes community members and visiting guests can interact with our “frozen assets” and appreciate their importance, even in the middle of the winter.
Saturday, February 8th, 2025 (10 a.m. – 3 p.m.)
The Edgewater & Lake Mendota
FREE, open to the public
2025 Ice and Snow Sailing World Championships, Lake Mendota
Kites on Mendota with Wisconsin Kiter’s Club, Lake Mendota
Free hot chocolate, Grand Plaza
Free ice skating and free skate rental, The Edgewater Ice Rink and Skate Shop
Try snowshoeing, Lake Mendota
Explore how UW-Madison Center for Limnology monitors our lakes in the winter months, Lake Mendota
Play Plinko (Lake-O), Nolen Gallery
Spin the Price is Right Wheel, Nolen Gallery
Snow Snake with members of Ho-Chunk Nation, Lake Mendota
WI Salt Wise booth – hear about how salt use can impact our lakes, outside
More events to be announced!
8 – 9:45 a.m. Check in for Frozen Assets 5K Run/Walk, 5th Floor Registration Tables
10 a.m. Frozen Assets 5K Run/Walk begins, Lake Mendota off The Edgewater Pier
10 a.m. – 1 p.m. UW Physics “What’s Colder Than Ice?” Lake Mendota
10:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. IceCube demonstrates Space Dust & Neutrinos, Outside
2:00 p.m. Clean Lakes 101 family-friendly science presentation, “Frozen Frontiers – Secrets of Life Beneath the Ice,” The Edgewater Grand Ballroom C
More events to be announced!
Join Clean Lakes Alliance at The Edgewater for the Frozen Assets Festival! We’ll have FREE, family-friendly activities on frozen Lake Mendota! Thank you to our hosting sponsor The Edgewater, and our other sponsors for making this community event possible.
The Frozen Assets Festival will kick off with the Frozen Assets 5K Run/Walk, held entirely on the ice in front of The Edgewater. The rest of the day will include family-friendly activities on the ice and The Edgewater Plaza.
A winter of warm weather meant a Frozen Assets like we’ve never seen before. While poor ice conditions meant nothing could be held on Lake Mendota, we still engaged with community members on The Edgewater’s Grand Plaza!
Due to continued warm weather, Clean Lakes Alliance has made the decision to cancel all Frozen Assets events scheduled to take place on Lake Mendota. The decision was made after multiple days of drilling test holes in Lake Mendota, as well as speaking with experts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a local meteorologist, and local law enforcement officials. Events including skydiving, Kites on Mendota, snowshoeing, pond hockey, and the Mary B will not be at Frozen Assets this year.
Ice on! Temperatures below zero, combined with cold water and low wind, helped Lake Mendota officially freeze on January 15, 2024, as declared by the Wisconsin State Climatology Office. Lake Mendota, the largest lake in the Yahara Watershed, froze a full 26 days after December 20th, which is the median ice-on date for the largest lake in the Yahara River Watershed. The January 15th freeze is the 3rd latest freeze date since monitoring began over 170 years ago. The latest ice-on date is January 30th, and that took place in 1932.
We had so much fun throughout the nine days of Frozen Assets 2023 and we hope you did too! More than 8,000 lake enthusiasts from near and far joined us for science demonstrations, musical performances, ice skating, food and drinks, ice sculpture carving, a chance to try new winter activities, face painting, networking, a chance to run or walk in the only 5K on a frozen lake in North America, and more! We THANK YOU for supporting lakes Mendota, Monona, Wingra, Waubesa, and Kegonsa!
Lake enthusiasts from near and far joined us at Frozen Assets 2023 for science demonstrations, music, a 5K on a frozen lake, and more!
NEW! Join us for the first ever Frozen Assets Pond Hockey Tournament on rinks built right on frozen Lake Mendota! Come early for a stop at The Boathouse at The Edgewater for a brew from the beer garden and then gather round the rinks. Teams will play from 4 – 8 p.m., with the finals on Friday, February 3rd.
Friday Night Brewgrass Concert, 6-8 p.m.
Surprise! We’ve planned a pop-up Winter Friday Night Brewgrass concert. Summer concert goers wear their favorite flannel and get ready for Friday Fish Fry from the Icehouse at 5 p.m., music at 6 p.m. – and don’t forget your favorite brews on tap.
Kites on Mendota – Night Fly, Dusk
For the first time, large show kites from the Wisconsin Kiter’s Club will dot the sky over Lake Mendota at night! These LED-lit kites will fly high in the air for a unique nighttime display.
Ice Sculpture Display Lighting, 6 p.m.
After a week of work, we’ll have the Art Below Zero sculptures finished and ready to light for the night!
All events are part of the nine-day Frozen Assets week celebration. The festival celebrates our community’s lakes as a year-round asset.
Wear your youth hockey jersey and skate for free as we celebrate National Girls & Women in Sports Day. Head over to The Boathouse at The Edgewater to watch the UW Badger Women’s Basketball team take on Ohio State. This event is part of the nine-day Frozen Assets week, which celebrates our lakes as one of community’s greatest assets.
Our Tropical Tuesday skate will have you on island time! Grab a lei and feel the cool Lake Mendota breeze as you jam to Jimmy Buffet around the rink.
Warm up with our Lakeside Luau with the Madison Downtowners, Madison Magnet, Smart Growth, and NAIOP in The Boathouse at The Edgewater with some of our summer favorites including The Boathouse Margarita and the Mendota Colada, Hawaiian pizzas and our favorite steel drum duo. This event is part of the nine-day Frozen Assets Festival, which celebrates our lakes as a year-round asset.
