When I was a kid, which is sadly quite a long time ago now, the idea of a city putting on a city-wide festival, celebrating the culture, history and importance of skateboarding within it, would have been something that only a maniac would suggest. Nottingham, however, is hands-down the most active city in the country when it comes to elevating skateboarding within the area. This largely comes down to a handful of key people who have been incredibly active within the city over the past ten years or so, gradually building a community that fully embraces the huge benefits that skateboarding can bring to a city that welcomes it with open arms. Two of those key people are Chris Lawton and Tom Quigley, both figureheads of the ever-busy Skate Nottingham crew, a team of skaters that are absolutely dead-set on turning Nottingham into a eutopia for UK skateboarding. This is obviously something we at Supereight are incredibly hyped on, and leap at any chance we can to get involved and help!
So, when Skate Nottingham approached us earlier in the year, asking if we would be interested in helping support their third Skateboarding in the City III festival in September 2025, we of course said, yes please!
Whilst Skate Nottingham did the heavy lifting, i.e. figuring out the logistics of the whole festival, we were left with the task of sourcing sponsors and donating prizes for the three planned skate jams (as well as a cheeky Saturday night pub quiz), creating a skate obstacle for the two jams based within the city, and helping organise the final jam of the whole festival, which also happened to be a celebration of Supereight’s 10th anniversary! Alongside all of this, our very own Joe Walchester curated a phenomenal exhibition in the Broadway Gallery, showcasing the ten-year journey of Supereight. Don’t worry if you missed it, we have got it right here for you.
After securing sponsors from brands such as DC, Magenta, Slappy and Heathen, acquiring & donating prizes, and getting the legend that is Craig Smedley to handcraft us a perfectly sized DC x Supereight bench for everyone to skate, we were ready. Well, we were about as ready as you can be when preparing for a multi-day skate festival…
Before I get into the nitty-gritty of Supereight’s experience of the festival, it must be said that the Skate Nottingham guys put on one hell of a festival. So many rad aspects of the festival won’t get much of a mention in this post due to us being occupied with our own responsibilities throughout the festival. All I can say is, if you are reading this, you’ve got to come to the next one!
Day 1 – People’s Hall
The festival weekend began with the People’s Hall in Hockley opening its doors on the Thursday, hosting the incredible History of Lady Bay Skatepark exhibition, curated by Tom Quigley, and filled with photos of local rippers skating the park in all of its different iterations over the years. If you were to walk through this at any point over the weekend, it was truly heart-warming to see so many people reminiscing over photos of not only themselves, but various friends and characters they share, or perhaps, shared the park with. Not only that, as the day went on, a workshop creating skate obstacles took place, designed to teach skaters from all backgrounds and ages how to build functional skate obstacles such as kickers and ledges that can truly withstand all the abuse skateboarding throws towards those poor, helpless objects. Let’s face it, every kid has tried to make a block or a kicker at some point in their childhood, only for it to be possibly the most egregious thing they’ve ever tried to skate. Or was that just me? Either way, knowledge is power and knowing how to make a decent ledge to skate really is true power.
With everyone’s brains now sloshing around a combination of heavy nostalgia and carpentry knowledge, it only made sense to let them get even more amped for the weekend ahead with a choice selection of skate videos to end the night.
Day 2 – Tramline Spot Jam
After Thursday’s antics, the entire skater population of Nottingham was more juiced up than an enraged & topless Mike Vallely, all itching to use up the fuel they were fed the day before. Luckily for them all, the recently created obstacles were now placed out on the street in front of both the People’s Hall and Broadway Gallery. In between the talks, walks and jams that were taking place over the weekend, this is where the festival was consistently popping, luring both skaters and non-skaters down Heathcoat Street to rubberneck around the galleries and watch/skate the new obstacles getting put through their paces.
As late afternoon came around, the first location change came about, moving away from Heathcote Street and heading around the corner to TLS, also known as the Tramline Spot.
With the jam starting on the manny-pad and mini stair set, it gave Joe Hill time to take the bench out of its flatpack state and into what would be maybe one of the best wooden ledges I’ve seen. Everyone was killing it. Miriam Nelson, as ever, was on a charge throughout the jam, skating every inch of the spot. Craig Smedley was on a vintage tear. Thinking about it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that dude sit down at a skate jam… Anyway, once Joe put the bench together (thanks again Joe) and everyone had exhausted their bag of tricks on the manny pad and stair set, the bench quickly learnt what to expect for the rest of its life, with the likes of Smedley, Joe H, Miriam and Evin Young relentlessly stacking clip after clip on it. I’ve also got to give a big shout-out to Lewis Blower for that dope wallride from out of the hip, properly boosted!
Once everyone was suitably exhausted from tearing up TLS, and prizes were handed out, everyone headed back to the People’s Hall. All reconvening to watch Magenta legend, Leo Valls give an insightful talk on skate urbanism to wrap the day up.
Day 3 – Sneinton Market Jam
As you can probably expect by now, the People’s Market and Broadway Gallery were the locations for the beginning of the day. For those feeling slightly stiffer than the rest (over 30 gang represent), Saturday kicked off with an hour of Yoga, keeping everyone as limber as possible for the next two days. On top of that, the Skate Makers’ Market opened, offering up a broad selection of superb skater-made products. Where else can you support skater-owned and created businesses and dabble in some yoga under the same roof?!
Due to Saturday being the first day of the festival when the Supereight team wasn’t working, it took until now for us all to link up and look around the Supereight 10th Anniversary exhibition and get warmed up for the upcoming Sneinton Market Jam later in the day. To be honest, when I say we got ‘warmed up’, that was basically just me, as the guys on the team don’t seem to need to get their blood pumping at all to start getting gnarly. Josh Mayon, Joe Hill, Fin Shaw and Olly Roberts were all crushing it outside the gallery and inadvertently ended up putting on a bit of a show for the crowd that was slowly gathering to watch.
Once everyone else on the team had arrived outside the gallery and we had taken a cute little team photo, it was about time to go down to Sneinton Market to get ready for the jam. Before the megaphones were even turned on, people were going crazy. I honestly can’t remember a skate jam where an obstacle had such a consistent stream of skaters coming at it. As someone would land a trick, there would already be someone else popping onto it, genuinely insane how anyone could commit to anything whilst random boards were flying around them! Josh Mayson, Joe Hill and Will Golding all went ballistic, each putting down an array of mad shit. Will’s bs noseblunt, for example, was just beautiful.
As we all know, if there is a kicker hanging around near a group of skateboarders, it’s going to get used one way or another. Luckily, there were a couple of them there, and after Will shut down the bench session, the bench quickly became something to go over and not grind. Cue the second wave of mass destruction. Personally, Mike Trowbridge’s no-comply over the whole damn thing stood out as one of the best things I saw all weekend, and he didn’t even use the kicker! Of course, if there is a skate jam at Sneinton Market, it’s basically illegal not to watch kids jump down the big ol’ 3 block, and once Dan Katchi landed his laser flip over the bench, the focus quickly shifted over to the legendary 3 block. All I need to say is Joe Hill, take a bow. Hardflip first try down that thing is no joke.
Once everyone picked their jaws up from the floor, more prizes were handed out and the evening began to set in, we all headed over to the King Billy for the ‘Who Wants to be a Melon-Air’ pub quiz and after-party. Good times!
Day 4 – Supereight 10th Anniversary Jam
With slightly thicker heads than the day before, those who could manage it began their Sunday with a walk’n’talk with Ben Powell and Andrew Horsely for their ‘Skate Heritage Walk’. A perfect way to walk off a hangover and look at the insane amount of rad history Nottingham has amassed over the years. All whilst receiving commentary from two of the biggest skate nerds in UK skateboarding.
Whilst that was going down in the city centre, we were busy getting the final jam of the festival ready, our tenth-year anniversary jam at the Joshua Dale Park in Colwick. With this jam being focused on curbs, launch ramps and a high-ollie contest, as well as being the last event of the festival, it should have been slightly less intense on everyone’s bodies. The issue was, once Ben Powell and Horsely arrive and start shouting at you, you don’t really have much choice other than to get busy on whatever they are demanding you skate, and that’s exactly what happened. Zombie Stu, Chandon Gallagher and Olly Roberts were absolute standouts, dancing around the whole park and making sure no curb was left untouched. Big shout out to Chandon for winning the curb MVP, dude was blowing minds throughout the day.
Luckily for the curbs, after an hour or so of slappys, the launch ramps were put into position and primed for some ‘80s-inspired boosting. So many early grabs went down in a space of about 30 minutes, you’d have been forgiven for forgetting the popsicle deck had ever been invented. Fortunately, Olly Roberts and Josh Mayson quickly came to the rescue and stomped a huge tre-flip and kickflip, respectively. Balance was restored.
To wrap up the event and, of course, the festival itself, it only made sense to go back to the roots of street skating… The high-ollie contest! Every single group of skateboarders at some point in their lives have collected a load of complete skateboards and stacked them up to see who can pop the biggest ollies.
Coincidentally, when looking back at the levels of nostalgia that spread across the festival throughout the weekend, it was such an apt way to wrap up the event, doing something every skater looks back on with absolute fondness. Something I’m sure everyone who attended the 2025 Skateboarding in the City will experience again when looking back at such a fun-filled weekend. Thanks again, Skate Nottingham, for the opportunity to get involved in such a positive weekend of skateboarding! Let’s do it again soon. x