'Every Friday night, it was on with the skates': Forty years of spills, thrills, rock stars and raves as Dundonald Ice Bowl celebrates birthday

That’s because Dundonald Ice Bowl is celebrating four decades since it first opened its doors, looking back on its 1986 beginning while readying big plans for where it goes next.

Generations have enjoyed the year-round winter wonderland, whether at its titular Olympic-sized rink, ever-popular ten-pin bowling alley or family fun at children’s play zone Indianaland.

And in the 1990s it was the stage for a series of high-profile gigs that still loom large in the cultural memory of Northern Ireland, hosting everyone from one of rock’s all-time icons to a record-breaking hitmaker of the era as he sailed the top of the charts – and even a rave featuring a future legends of dance music.

Still racking in more than 600,000 visitors every year, the Ice Bowl holds decades of nostalgic memories for families across the province, not to mention providing training grounds for champion skaters and the Belfast Giants ice hockey team.

Launched 40 years ago this week, the massive attraction a few miles east of Belfast was immediately a major draw in Northern Ireland.

A dive into this newspaper’s archives shows the September 22, 1986 opening bash saw hundreds of schoolchildren watch an exhibition ice hockey match – actually between two London teams flown over for the occasion, one of them rebranded the ‘Castlereagh Cougars’ for the day – as well as display skating and ice dancers.

We can even reveal who may have been the very first person to break their leg on the ice. Alison Vitty was the 12-year-old daughter of one of the facility’s major political supporters, area DUP councillor Denny Vitty, and she’s reported to have taken a painful tumble during an open night in the week before the ribbon was formally cut on the Ice Bowl.

Away from the celebrations, however, trouble was brewing among some of the good burghers of Castlereagh; a petition was circulating, trying to get the local council to stop it opening on Sundays.

The attraction has continued to boast a seven-day schedule, however, and over the years hosted major championships in both skating and bowling.

But for a while in the early 1990s, its extra-curricular musical activities loomed as large as its normal fun.

One of the earliest high-profile shows was from 1960s troubadour Bob Dylan, who braved the chill of a Northern Irish winter by taking to the Ice Bowl stage in the first week of February 1991.

Dylan’s obsessive fans try to track down every note he ever played, and assiduous bootleggers covertly recorded the Dundonald show for posterity.

The tape shows his set packed with A-listers like ‘Lay Lady Lay’, ‘All Along The Watchtower’ and ‘A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall’, Dylan broke the ice by bringing out a hometown hero – Van Morrison, the pair of infamously irascible performers warming in the ice bowl’s cold confines as they duetted on a version of Morrison’s ‘Tupelo Honey’.

Eight months later Bryan Adams headlined, his October show coming at the tail end of his record-breaking 16-week run at number one in the UK singles chart with ‘Everything I Do, I Do It For You’.

With success like that under his belt, presumably the huge hit would close the show; in fact, the Canadian star did two more songs after it, followed by two encores.

Come November 1992 and the frosty venue was experiencing white-hot rave with the Prodigy, one month after the Essex outfit released their first album.

A career as one of the defining acts of the 1990s was still ahead of them, though they’d already racked up four Top 20 hits by the time they heated up the Ice Bowl, shooting gouts of flames to the frenetic beats of their track ‘Fire’.

A DJ set that night from their main creative force, Liam Howlett, was also bootlegged and became a must-have on Ulster’s dance scene under the name ‘The Mental Mix’. Concentrated on the breakbeat hardcore sounds then dominating floors around the country, the cassette became a regular in the personal stereos and car sound-systems of groovers around the province.

Other performers included ska hitmakers Madness and boy-band East 17.

From rockers to ravers, it’s quite the cultural legacy for somewhere better known for ice sports and family-friendly fun.

Among the crowds of excited teens in the attraction’s early years was Sharon Lowry. Now a councillor, she oversees Lisburn and Castlereagh’s leisure facilities but back in the day was a regular punter.

“Every Friday night, it was up to the Ice Bowl and on with the skates,” she told the News Letter during a tour of the facility. “I always wanted to be a speed-skater; never quite made it, but I had my own white boots and bag.

“Being a child of the 80s, I spent a lot of time here. It was the place to be to meet your mates, and I saw a fair few of the bands who played.

“When I had kids of my own I brought them too – the tradition goes on, for us and many others.”

There’s a generational popularity among families, she added, with new parents who were wowed by Indianaland as kids remembering it as the perfect place for their own youngsters to play.

​After a birthday bash this weekend, however, officials are looking forward to an under-construction new version of Dundonald Ice Bowl, due to open roughly one year from now.

“It’s going to look amazing,” said Ms Lowry. “We’ll still have Olympic-sized skating, but with 24 lanes of bowling and gym facilities. Exciting times ahead.”