Skateholders Forum 2024: A New Skate Festival Format in South Bohemia, Czechia

Skateholders Forum 2024: A New Skate Festival Format in South Bohemia, Czechia

Words by Tom Critchley

The European Cultural Paradox

Driving south from Prague through South Bohemia and towards Europe’s newest skateboarding festival of Skateholders Forum, a road sign pointed towards the small town by the name of Tábor. Whilst our destination for now was the regional capital České Budějovice for a programme of workshops, panels, gigs and skate jams, we would later travel to Tábor to join Transforma, an electronic music festival hosted in this most quaint of Czech towns.

It was at the 2023 rendition of Transforma Festival where Jakub Novotný first broke news that the nearby regional capital of České Budějovice had won the 2028 European Capital of Culture. By this time, Jakub and his team had already begun laying plans for a skate urbanism festival to accompany the infamous DIY construction competition that unfolded as part of the Transforma programme. And now, one year later, I was back in South Bohemia ready to experience Skateholders Forum 2024, eagerly followed by Transforma once again.

What made this festival of particular interest to me was considering the role of skateboarding as part of České Budějovice’s delegation as a European Culture Capital that seemed to exist in a paradox of sort. As the European Union website states, the designation of European Capitals of Culture is, on one hand, to showcase diverse cultural richness of Europe, and on the other, to increase European citizen’s sense of common culture. So, where then does skateboarding sit on this cultural conundrum? Can Skateholders Forum thread a fine needle that showcases a unique local culture yet simultaneously celebrate a shared continental identity?

Post-Punk in the Disused Post-Office

Appropriately, the organisers of Skateholders Forum had taken inspiration for their programming from a growing trend of skate festivals in Europe. Pushing Boarders can be seen as a founding institution, successfully bridging the gap between critical discourse in skateboarding and a wider audience. In this vein, Skateholders had invited an array of thinkers and doers of skate urbanist movements from Czechia to Scandinavia, Vienna and back to London with NGOs in Concrete Jungle Foundation and Free Movement Skateboarding working farer afield. Global perspectives were not limited to panels with lots of opportunities for hands-on workshops in skate-friendly urban planning and DIY slappy curb making. Clear inspiration can also be seen from the likes of Vladimir Film Festival where there is always a strong contingent of Czech skateboarders camping by the DIY. The programme also offered activities to balance the hardmiles of thinking deeply through skateboarding with pub quizzes, exhibitions, music and plenty of time to just hang out.

Towards the latter, my first evening at Skateholders offered two bands performing within the skeleton of a defunct post office next to České Budějovice’s central railway station. Appropriately, the lead singer of the evening’s first band, Ida the Young, sipped cans of Budvar between songs with the brewery located a stone’s throw away in the city. The band’s blend of electronic indie music tinged with a beach-come-country was topped with compellingly emotive lyrics of disdained youth. The proceeding band, sinks, embraced a darker and heavier post-punk noise. Through a fog of thunderous guitar imposed over enticing vocals, the three-piece band captivated the audience.

Black Lipstick by Ida the Young.

It was such a privilege to see Ida the Young and sinks perform – a thirst for the music scene well and truly quenched. The evening expertly complimented the objectives of Skateholders as part of the European Capital of Culture; live music celebrating provisional arts scenes within the confines of an abandoned public amenity - a story as old as the postal service itself. This was made even more enticing when embracing unique sounds of Czechia’s indie scene shaped by societal undercurrents… the remaining Stakeholders Forum programme would continue this trend.

Listen: 12 by Sinks

Southside Skateboarding Exhibition: Four Decades on Four Wheels between Šumava and Vysočina

On seeing the Skateholders Forum programme, I was very excited to see Jakub Novotný’s exhibition documenting the South Bohemian skate scene from 1985(ish) to the present day. The exhibition began by showcasing grainy ‘80s photographs of skateboarders stood proudly around wonky wooden half-pipes in South Bohemia’s towns. Then, Soviet Union Stalinist architecture made for ideal ledges and manny pads for emerging street skating of the 1990s. The gallery and accompanying panel discussion reminisced local spot Lenin Square, a comrade to Prague’s infamous Stalin Plaza. Once located opposite to where the exhibition was hosted, fabled marbled ledges made way for asphalt carpark in the 1990s as the zeitgeist infrastructure of rampant capitalism and car culture in Czechia following the fall of communism.

The political and poetic undercurrent to the exhibition exerted creativity and depth into the Skateholder’s programme that offered unique archive into the history of the South Bohemia skate scene. The emergence of skateboarding in the region during the twilight years of the iron curtain’s eventual fall whilst negotiating a neoliberalising Czechia at the turn of the millennium offered a rich and thought-provoking history to contextualize Skateholders Forum; I left with an etched memory of father’s taking their children to the exhibition showing how cool dad was skating Lenin Square at a time of a changing Czechia to now have their story told as part of European Capital of Culture.

I also noted a continual emergence of Martin Kalenský, or Chucky, throughout the exhibition from fresh faced teenager in the early 2000s to local scene guardian in the present day. Appropriately, Chucky was also the mastermind behind Skateholders Forum 2024 with Kuba Novotný, well placed cultural connoisseurs and kingpins of the scene. Both grew up skateboarding in the area from the early 2000s, turning to nurturing regional skateboarding and music across two decades. Behind every skate festival and provisional skateboarding scenes are drivers for connection and growth so biggup Chucky, Kuba and everyone else working towards archiving, celebrating and growing those less known skate communities.

A Refreshing Skateboarding Panel Discussion

Alongside Czech-based artists, musicians and collectives, the Skateholders Forum programme was also joined by some of most notable names in European skateboarding and urbanism discourse: Chris Lawton representing SkateboardGB and Skate Nottingham, Gustav Eden as skateboarding ambassador of Malmö City, Skate Club Vienna and Gnarathon organiser Johannes Wimmeder, Bourdeux’s knight in shining armour Leo Valls, Long Live Southbank and Betong Park innovator Stuart Maclure, the creative mind behind Concrete Jungle Foundation’s Edu-Skate Programme Tim vas Asdonck and Free Movement Skateboarding’s Will Ascott…. a seriously staked line-up of intellectual thought matched with a good dose of fun times hanging out.

The first panel of the programme, chaired by Will Ascott, looked to unpack the value and good practice for structured skateboarding classes. Perspectives from European context of Vienna and community building in Athens were complimented with further afield experiences of Tim van Asdonck’s work in Morocco and Jamaica. Sharing stories across contexts, the panel gave refreshingly honest accounts of struggling to assimilate into the often-difficult contexts in which they intervene with particular attention towards relationships with ‘core’ aspect of these local skateboarding scenes.

The following evening’s panel followed up with what can be likened to the closing headline slot of a music festival: Chris Lawton, Gustav Eden, Leo Valls and Stuart Maclure sharing their priceless experience of making the world a more skate-friendly place. The panel peaked with an ensemble of anecdotal experiences that painted a rich yet personal picture for the exciting direction European skate urbanism has taken over the last 10-years. Interesting insights on skateboarding’s relationship to European Culture could be drawn from Gustav Eden’s account of his occupational precarity within the politics of Malmö as both right wing populism and the staunch leftists take issue on the spending of public money for skateboarding purposes.

With the skate panel becoming a regular fixture on European circuit of festivals, I feel a degree of repetitiveness to the ideas and topics explored across these discussions. What was unique to Skateholders was an honest dialogue on the shortcomings and failures facing each project. The relatively small and tight-knit festival of Skateholders attendees encouraged this reflexive discussion. Whereas the larger skate festivals often feel impersonal and flailing, a week in České Budějovice develops a close community feel to the festival where you really get to know everyone present in the more formal panel structure, but also through bountiful opportunities for skating and hanging out. This I found to not only support in-depth and conversational panel discussions, but ongoing debates and friendship well beyond the week festival, something of course helped by our most welcoming of Czech hosts.

Transforma Festival & The DIY Skatepark Competition

The panel discussions marked the end of Skateholders Forum in České Budějovice, but not before a closing party to mark our convoy onto Tábor and Transforma Festival. I am a huge fan of Transforma; the care and authenticity embedded within the festival offers a truly DIY and underground experience that continues trends of Skateholders in creating a close community of festival-goers. I was very excited to hear that Skateholders would collectively move to Tabor with programming taking place as part of the wider music festival.

As the sun sets on the idyllic backdrop of the old water mill complex hosting Transforma, a fluctuating beat remains constant from Thursday evening until Sunday dawn and beyond. This serves as a ritualistically therapeutic balance to in-depth discussions and exhibitions on skateboarding the days prior. But, with Skateholders’ infamous Vozová Hrotba DIY competition scheduled for Friday, I did well to pace myself to fully enjoy this unique skatepark construction contest. A routine well refined, teams are pipped against each other to battle over mountains of disused materials to construct obstacles, which are then subject to sessioning on Saturday with teams winning points for construction, creativity and tricks.

I will let Mitch Lovás’ video do the talking here, but will reiterate that having enjoyed the party a bit too much Friday evening, our team were noticeably absent from Saturday’s proceedings… work hard, play hard (but in that order!)…

Some Concluding Thoughts…

This was, of course, just a snapshot into a wider programme of Skateholders Forum 2024 of which I had limited capacity (hangover, work commitments, desires to skate) to attend. By all accounts, the skate urbanism workshop hosted by architects from U/U studio could have pipped the archival exhibition to the highlight of the week in České Budějovice. Likewise, skate jams, pub quizzes, after parties and skinny dipping kept the audience preoccupied when they were not musing over the intricacies of skateboarding, urbanism and education… an expertly balanced programme of serious fun and funny seriousness. Excitingly, Skateholders Forum 2025 is now announced with another staked line up pairing local talent with perspectives from UK, Finland, Serbia, and more to come. If you are looking for a skate trip that invites you into the welcoming Czech scene whilst connecting with more crews around Europe that has plenty of interesting discussions, workshops and events well balanced by a good dose of partying, Skateholders Forum should be on your Summer 2025 agenda.

But to come full circle, what did Stakeholders Forum tell me about skateboarding and culture within contemporary Europe? Spearheaded by institutionalised European urbanism campaigns by pioneers such as Gustav Eden, skateboarding is undeniably part and parcel of European culture. Yet, from post-punk in post offices to exhibitions of the local scene followed by panel discussions with perspectives from Nottingham, Malmö, Vienna, Athens and Morrocco, skateboarding is well placed to celebrate local particularities and wider commonality beyond just the borders of Europe. As Europe and much of the world face frightening waves of far-right popularism and exclusionism, skateboarding seems well placed to thread an intricate needle of celebrating diverse cultural richness whilst simultaneously inviting a shared sense of commonality that transcends nation-state borders of Europe and beyond.