Central Park is famous for lawns and lakes, but it is also one of the busiest stages in New York. This guide covers three places where people come to perform or to watch: the roller-skating circle near Sheep Meadow, the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre and the open-air Delacorte Theater. All three are stops on our Central Park scavenger hunt, and they link up neatly in one walk from the middle of the park to the West Side.
Skater's Circle
On warm weekends, a paved loop just north of Sheep Meadow and west of the Bandshell turns into an outdoor roller rink. Skaters began gathering here around 1978, in the roller-disco years, drawn by a nearby skate shop, and never really left. When the city moved to restrict the skating in the mid-1990s, regulars formed the Central Park Dance Skaters Association in 1995, led by Lezly Ziering, to keep the music going with proper permits. The spot is known as the Skate Circle, and some regulars still call the road it sits on the Dead Road.
The scene runs on weekends from spring to autumn, with DJs playing house and disco while skaters of every age dance, spin and skate backwards in the circle. You do not need to skate to enjoy it: most visitors stand at the edge and watch, and the best dancers clearly enjoy an audience. If you skate yourself, you are welcome to join in; stay on the outside of the loop until you have found the rhythm. It is one of the scavenger hunt stops.
- The DJ set-up at the side of the circle, which sets the pace for everyone.
- The regulars in matching outfits doing synchronised routines.
- The mix of skates, from vintage four-wheel boots to modern inline skates.
Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre
This little wooden house near the West 79th Street entrance looks as if it has wandered in from Scandinavia, and it has. Built as a model Swedish schoolhouse, it was sent by Sweden to Philadelphia in 1876 as its exhibit at the Centennial Exposition. Frederick Law Olmsted, one of the designers of Central Park, admired its craftsmanship and had it brought to the park in 1877.
Marionettes moved in in 1947, when a puppet troupe made the cottage its home, and in 1973 a permanent theatre for marionette shows was built inside. Today the City Parks Foundation runs it and stages marionette versions of classic stories, mostly for children. Book ahead if you want to see a show; even without a ticket, the building is worth a look from outside, and it is one of the few buildings in Central Park that was made in another country. It is on the scavenger hunt route.
- The steep roof and carved wooden details, unlike any other building in the park.
- The Shakespeare Garden on the slope right next to it.
- The cottage's small size: it shows how close the audience sits to the puppets.
Delacorte Theater
The Delacorte Theater is the open-air home of Shakespeare in the Park, the free summer performances of the Public Theater. Joseph Papp started his free Shakespeare festival in 1954, and the theatre opened on 18 June 1962 with The Merchant of Venice. It is named after the publisher George T. Delacorte Jr. and his wife Valerie, who paid the final part of the construction costs.
The amphitheatre seats about 1,800 people, and the stage looks out over Turtle Pond, with Belvedere Castle rising behind. After a renovation of nearly two years, it reopened in July 2025. Tickets for Shakespeare in the Park are still free; they are handed out on the day and through lotteries, so queuing early is part of the tradition. Over the decades the stage has drawn famous names: Meryl Streep starred here in The Seagull and Mother Courage, and Al Pacino played Shylock in The Merchant of Venice in 2010. Outside the gates stand two bronze groups by Milton Hebald: Romeo and Juliet, and Prospero and Miranda from The Tempest. The theatre is one of the scavenger hunt stops.
- The view across Turtle Pond to Belvedere Castle, which often serves as a backdrop to the plays.
- The bronze Romeo and Juliet and the scene from The Tempest near the entrance.
- The early queue on summer mornings when a play is running.
How to see them in one walk
Start at the Skate Circle north of Sheep Meadow, then walk past Bethesda Terrace towards Turtle Pond to reach the Delacorte Theater, with Belvedere Castle on the rock above. From there, follow the paths west through the Shakespeare Garden down to the Swedish Cottage near West 79th Street. Weekend afternoons are best for the skaters, and summer evenings for the Delacorte.
Two more scavenger hunt stops sit right on this path. Bethesda Terrace, with its arcade and the Angel of the Waters fountain, was the formal centre of the original park design; the bronze angel by Emma Stebbins was unveiled in 1873. Belvedere Castle, a small stone folly designed by Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould, sits on Vista Rock above Turtle Pond, and weather instruments have been recording Central Park's official readings from its grounds for about a century. Its terraces give the best view down onto the Delacorte stage.
See Central Park with World City Trail
Our Central Park scavenger hunt turns the park into a game you play on your phone. The route links 10 stops, from the Obelisk to Alice in Wonderland, and all three places in this guide are on it: the Skater's Circle, the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre and the Delacorte Theater. Along the way you also pass Belvedere Castle, the Imagine mosaic, the Balto statue and Bethesda Terrace, so it is an easy way to see the middle of the park with a purpose.
If you prefer a different format, there is also a self-guided walking tour and an outdoor escape game in Central Park.
Play the Central Park scavenger hunt →
Take the self-guided walking tour of Central Park →
Play the outdoor escape game in Central Park →
Facts checked in October 2026.