DC Mayor Muriel Bowser announces a downtown skating rink on Wednesday, October 23, at the Riggs Hotel. Photograph by Andrew Beaujon. An ice rink will open inside the National Building Museum this holiday season, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser announced at a press conference at the Riggs Hotel Wednesday morning. The rink will join lots of other attractions at this year’s Downtown DC Holiday Market, the longtime downtown event that underwent a major shakeup this year. The rink will welcome skaters from December 16 to January 4, and more new attractions are planned, like a “National Mistletoe” by artist My Ly at Anthem Row, formerly Techworld Plaza. There’s a national Christmas tree downtown, BID president Gerren Price said at the event, so why not a national mistletoe? Other stuff outside the market includes the return of “Frosted at Franklin Park,” a light and sculpture installation. The market itself will have more vendors at once than in previous years—around 110, Price said, 90 percent of which he said were BIPOC-, LGBTQ+-, or women-owned. They’ll sell their wares out of wood structures that resemble classic European holiday markets, and the market will take place on the sidewalk and on F Street, Northwest, between Seventh and Ninth streets. There also will be a stage booked by the DC Office of Cable Television, Film, Music and Entertainment, a central bar called the Winter Chalet (run by Dirty Habit at the Hotel Monaco), a children’s play area, and a photo station called “Chilling with My Snowmies.” A rendering of what this year’s market will look like, by Perkins Eastman. Image courtesy Downtown DC BID. Several city officials appeared to assure potential marketgoers that this year’s event will be safe—including Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice Lindsey Appiah, who noted that violent crime was down 35 percent in the police district that handles downtown, and DC Council member Brook Pinto. Pinto also thanked Mike Berman, the longtime former organizer of the market whom the BID ousted this year. (Berman has set up a new market that will take place in Dupont Circle.) The new organizer is a company from New York called the Makers Show. The market plans expanded food options, Price said, including, he reassured the room, churros. There will also be a raclette station. The Downtown DC Holiday Market runs from November 22–December 23 on F Street between 7th and 9th streets, Northwest. It will be open from noon to 8 PM. The post An Ice Rink, a Giant Mistletoe, and Other Plans for Downtown DC’s Holiday Season first appeared on Washingtonian.