Moscow will host the Extreme Sports Festival for the first time

The festival has been held since 2021 under the auspices of the International Federation of Skateboarding and Roller Sports World Skate, which unites more than 20 Olympic and non-Olympic disciplines. This is a unique phenomenon at the intersection of sports and youth subcultures.

A few years ago, it was hard to imagine an adult rolling down the street on a scooter or board with wheels. And if skateboarding has its roots in the youth culture of the 1960s, then the first scooters were originally used as toys and entertainment for children. But in 2000 the scooter boom came and today scooter riding has evolved from a fun activity for kids to a fast paced, competitive and extreme sport.

Skateboarding (boards on wheels) and kick scooters (scooters) include spectacular tricks, somersaults, turns, takeoffs and gravity-defying flights. These fantastic tricks are performed on a special concrete or wooden surface of the skate park structures. The main venue of the festival was the new skate park with stands, which was installed in front of Pavilion No. 57 on the Main Alley of VDNKh. Today, scooters and skateboards, as well as roller skates and stunt bikes, have become widespread throughout the world, forming a whole subculture among extreme street athletes. Gaining momentum, this new social phenomenon, rebellious youth activities, very quickly grew into new types of extreme sports. Just like all over the world, in our country today these are independent sports, and not just youth subcultures, gradually separating one from the other. There are professional teams, competitions and other public events are held.

Holding the Grand Skate Tour 2022 at VDNKh is proof that street sports are a real public diplomacy of the younger generation. “During the week before the City Day, demonstration performances and competitions among professionals and amateurs will be held at the exhibition. They will demonstrate their skills by riding scooters, roller skates and skateboards. About six thousand athletes from 25 countries and 30 regions of Russia will take part in the competition. A market with youth clothing and accessories will open nearby. There will also be thematic workshops and competitions. They are also equipping a food court and a dance floor for guests,” said Deputy Mayor of Moscow Natalya Sergunina. On the same days, the second international Forum of new Olympic sports and positive subcultures of the CIS countries will be held, the program of which will allow participants to gain knowledge not only in terms of coaching, refereeing and organizing competitions, but also in terms of sports photography and video production, speakers will talk about the path of skateboarding and kick scootering from a street subculture to an Olympic sport.

Competitions are held in 7 disciplines in 4 Olympic and non-Olympic sports: skateboarding, scooter sports, roller sports and longboarding. The entire territory of VDNH these days will turn into a huge space for skating: at the central entrance to VDNKh, a unique art object for rollerblading, scooter and skateboarding, formed from the letters of the word “Moscow”, was built, a giant skate park was designed near pavilion 57 for competitions with stands.

The festival will also host a mass race of several thousand rollerbladers Roller Night. There will also be an open-air cinema with premieres of documentaries and videos about extreme sports, an exhibition of action sports photography by Russian and foreign photographers.

On the Day of the City of Moscow, international skateboarding competitions with the participation of foreign stars will be held at a special site. One of the biggest events of the festival is the night roller race on September 8, in honor of the Day of Moscow. In pavilion No. 18 “Republic of Belarus” one can see unique exhibits of the Minsk “USSR Skate Museum” – popular boards and exclusive limited-edition skateboards.

Mikhail Kovalyov.

Author’s photo