2026 Winter Olympics Ice Hockey Arena and Cortina Nights: How Fans, Photographers and the Jet Set Are Experiencing Day 13

The town that hosts much of the Games is delivering two simultaneous experiences for visitors: intense sport by day and high-energy nightlife by night. That split matters for anyone planning a visit — fans, photographers and athletes alike — and it pulls attention to venues big and small, including the 2026 Winter Olympics Ice Hockey Arena, as part of the overall spectator story. Photographs from day 13 captured that same duality: competitive winter sports framed against an ever-present party scene.

2026 Winter Olympics Ice Hockey Arena: what Cortina’s day-night split means for visitors

Here’s the part that matters: for people on the ground, the Games are not only about medal events but also about how those events intersect with local social life. Cortina d’Ampezzo is acting as a hub during the Games, and the contrast between daytime competition and late-night gatherings affects logistics, crowd moods and what photographers choose to shoot. Fans drawn to action—from the slopes to arena sidelines—are also encountering venues and social scenes where the party atmosphere is part of the travel experience.

Photos, parties and the scenes that defined day 13

Images selected from day 13 focused on a range of competition disciplines, from ski mountaineering to nordic combined, underscoring the athletic variety on display. At the same time, the town’s nightlife remained central to the Games’ social narrative: late-night gatherings in a VIP club, views of a winding sliding track lit against the Cortina night, and a mix of long-time local glamour with a newer influx of high-spending visitors.

Many longtime residents and business owners framed the Games as an opportunity to recapture earlier glamour. Investment has followed the international spotlight, and hospitality spaces are serving both traditional elite patrons and a broader, more colorful fan base wearing flags and novelty costumes. During opening events, some of Cortina’s social life paused for televised moments, then music and dancing resumed within the hour, illustrating how civic spectacle and nocturnal leisure are coexisting during the event.

What's easy to miss is how these two rhythms feed each other: strong visual moments from competition draw visitors into town, and the resulting nightlife becomes part of the imagery that photographers and commentators return to.

• Selected images from day 13 emphasized athletic variety—ski mountaineering and nordic combined among them—rather than a single marquee sport.
• Local nightlife, including prominent venues with sponsorship arrangements, is repopulating Cortina’s historic reputation as a glamorous winter destination.
• Practical implications for visitors include shifted crowd flows and an overlap of spectator zones and nightlife areas that can affect arrival and departure timing.
• Signals to watch for confirmation of longer-term change: continued hotel investment, repeat high-profile social events, and sustained international attention after the Games end.

Opening ceremonies and public events provided clear temporal markers during the town’s schedule; one evening’s parade of national delegations began on a local main drag in the late evening and music restarted in social venues shortly after—underscoring how celebration and ceremony thread together across the same nights.

The real question now is how the mix of competition imagery and nightlife coverage will shape Cortina’s post-Games image: will the town's revived glamour stick, or will it settle back into a quieter winter identity once the lights dim? Photographers and fans captured a moment of collision between sport and spectacle on day 13, and that collision is likely to inform impressions of the event well beyond individual results.

It’s easy to overlook, but the bigger signal here is the coexistence of athletic performance and curated nightlife—both are being photographed, both are drawing visitors, and both will influence what people remember from these Games.