Wintrust Winter WonderFest

About This Event

Winter WonderFest turns Navy Pier's 170,000-square-foot Festival Hall into an indoor amusement park for the coldest stretch of the Chicago year — rides, a skating rink, an indoor Ferris wheel, and more, all under one roof, with admission covering entry to everything rather than a per-ride ticket system.

It's been a Navy Pier winter fixture for more than two decades now, one of the few ways the pier draws real crowds through January instead of going quiet between the holidays and spring. The exact opening year is genuinely hard to pin down from public sources, but it had already been running for the better part of 20 years by the late 2010s — long enough to be a standing tradition for people who grew up going as kids and now bring their own.

Worth knowing before you go: it's not cheap at the door ($32 same-day vs. $27 booked ahead), and the pricing gap is real enough that booking online in advance is worth doing rather than paying the walk-up rate. Kids 2 and under get in free.