Skateboarding found itself thrust into the national spotlight, albeit briefly, this summer when 13-year old Sky Brown became Britain’s youngest ever Olympic medal winner after she claimed bronze in the women’s park skateboarding event in Tokyo. While the hype may have somewhat died down nationally, in Nottingham the skateboard scene is very much on the grow and that will be evident with the return of Skateboarding in the City (SITC).
A multi-event, multi-venue nine day festival SITC is run by local skateboarding organisation Skate Nottingham and will kick off this Friday with the City Circuit skate video competition, this competition, which runs from 6pm Friday until midnight on Sunday 26, features groups of up to 5 skaters creating and editing videos of up to 3-minutes long. Prizes, from Forty Two shop, will be awarded for various categories following a screening on 1 October. Follow and DM @city_circuit on Instagram to enter.
Sneinton Market has become a hot spot for skateboarding since it’s redevelopment and it will be a focal point of the festival as the temporary home of a photography exhibit celebrating 10 years’ of skate and graffiti culture. Plus Dizzy Ink will be hosting free t-shirt design and screen-printing workshops at the Carousel on Tuesday and Wednesday – 4-7pm.
One of Skate Nottingham’s most recent projects has been the development of a ‘legal’ skate park at Beeston Fields park, and they’ll be celebrating the completion of this new project with a skateboarding jam at the new park – free for all ages – on Wednesday, between 2 and 7pm, expect movable objects, prizes, giveaways and lots of fun.
A series of panel discussions, featuring skaters, writers, community organisers, makers and experts will be taking place at Metronome on Thursday, these are free entry but will need to be booked in advance, the same goes for the aforementioned City Circuit screening on Friday 1st, which also takes place at Metronome.
The Big one is on Saturday with the Nottingham Open Skate competition, taking place at Flo Indoor Skatepark and running all day, Supported by Skateboard GB there will be cash prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in park and street, plus fun giveaways and more.
Finally, on Sunday you can head down to Backlit Gallery for a workshop on creating your own skateboarding inspired comic book with Dr Matt Green (UoN) and graphic novelist Dr Nicola Streeten. Book tickets in advance.
So as you can see there will be plenty to do across the festival whether your an experienced skater or just interested in taking your first roll – head on over to the Skate Nottingham website for more information and to book tickets to events and Get Your Skate On.
