The UA Residence Hall Association is bringing winter to campus on Wednesday, complete with artificial snow and an ice rink on the UA Mall.

The association and Wildcat Events Board are collaborating to host Winter Fest on Dec. 5 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on the Mall in front of the Administration building.

The event will also feature an ugly sweater contest and a chance for students to make gingerbread houses. UA’s a capella group, Amplified, will perform for students, and when it isn’t performing, Christmas music will be played.

The free event will include free skate rentals for the ice rink. According to the events board’s Executive Director Brittany Vraney, the ice rink can hold between 50 and 100 students. As of Tuesday afternoon, the Facebook event had around 800 RSVPs.

“Our hope is that people will be able to cycle through in the ice skating rink so everybody can get a turn,” RHA Vice President of Public Relations Anthony Salas said.

Two machines will provide the artificial snow for the event. The event will cost about $6,000, and is being funded through the board’s budget, said Vraney.

The board’s Wild Nights director Jocelin Calcagno explained that the event is a chance for students to decompress before finals as well as provide a winter experience for students.

“The goal of the event is really to provide a unique experience for the U of A student,” Salas said. “It’s very rare that we get a winter feeling down here. I mean, it’s winter right now and it’s still 80 degrees most days.”

Winterfest is a new event to the UA, though event planners said they had considered the idea for a few years but couldn’t make it fit with the budget and schedule until this semester.

Salas explained that they wanted to show that when the different branches of student government work together, they can do amazing things.

“That’s what we hope this is: A really amazing experience for U of A students and hopefully something that they will remember when they look back on their college years,” Salas said.