Chances are you’ve heard the bad stuff about Frankfurt: it’s dirty. It’s full of drug addicts. It’s Germany’s capital of corruption and crime. The people here are rude. Rich stock brokers pocket the money while everyone else is living in a hellish mix between Gotham City and Hofbräuhaus. It’s ugly, derelict and an overall bad place to live. Chances are your notion of Frankfurt is not exactly peachy. You couldn’t be more wrong. It’s true that Frankfurt’s a rough place – but not in the bad sense of the word. It’s a city where every nation has some sort of presence, a city vibrant with different cultures and lifestyles, a city where rich and poor live together, not side by side. Everyone knows a banker, but everyone knows a junkie, too. In Frankfurt, roughness equals authenticity.
It’s in this climate of towering glass and concrete, of skyscraper canyons and multiculturalism that skateboarding thrives especially well, and so in Frankfurt, it did. Back in the 90s and early 2000s, the city was infamous for its spots – above all for the legendary Hauptwache. The public square slash subway entrance was and continues to be the central hub for skateboarding in Frankfurt and has seen quite some coverage in the last decades. The Hauptwache is in equal parts a meeting point, a starting point and a spot. And because we want to push the local scene, we’ve joined forces with Nike SB and Solo Skate Mag to hold the first ever JAM OF MAINHATTAN on September 17, 2016 throughout Frankfurt.
Skateboarding takes places in the streets: it’s about pushing through the city, exploring hidden spots, hanging around with your friends. It’s about using urban spaces creatively, not just as an infrastructure. This is why the JAM OF MAINHATTAN will not take place in a skate park but at three of Frankfurt’s most famous spots: the Bockenheimer Warte, Ostbahnhof and, finally, the legendary Hauptwache. Also, it’s not gonna be a competition. There’s not gonna be a first place because first places are for the Olympics. Instead, each spot will have a designated budget which will be distributed in cash among those of you who’ll land the hardest bangers. Once our wallet’s depleted, we’ll move on to the next spot and, eventually, to our shop in Sachsenhausen for BBQ, beers and music. Come one, come all, and tell your friends. Also, if you wanna feel the paper, you better start practicing right now.
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SCHEDULE
Meet us at Bockenheimer Warte right in front of the Senckenberg Library at 2 PM
Order of spots: Bockenheimer Warte, Ostbahnhof, Hauptwache
After party at Bonkers Shop (Klappergasse 11, 60594 Frankfurt) from around 7 PM
