Remember when the Ice Bar used to be free? That was great - you could go, buy a couple drinks, have them served in various creative ways using ice (slides, etc), see a bunch of people, and then head out.
Then, apparently, organizers decided there was too much riff-raff and started to charge admission at the door. Ten bucks put a big dent in the drink-buying budget, but it was once a year and still fun, and the cover charge went to charity.