The first edition of Connect Festival, an international event dedicated to skateboard culture and its relationship with urbanism, took place in Bordeaux from 17 to 20 October 2024. The event brought together experts, activists and artists from all over the world, promoting an interdisciplinary approach to the development of urban spaces. The event became a platform for the exchange of experiences and ideas, while inspiring innovative solutions in the field of urbanism and urban culture.
Connect featured a variety of activities, including exhibitions, conferences, film premieres, workshops, concerts, and installations of sculptures designed for skateboarding, placed throughout the public spots of Bordeaux. The event brought together skaters from around the globe, along with representatives from NGOs, academic experts and professionals, who collectively emphasized the importance of skateboarding and its integration into the urban planning of Bordeaux and cities worldwide.
What made Connect truly exceptional was its interdisciplinary character and the seamless involvement of diverse social groups in the dialogue about the future of urban planning. During my visit to southwestern France, I had the opportunity to speak with Leo Valls, the key organizer of the event, who shared the inspiring story behind its creation.
Hi Leo! Thank you for your time. Can you tell me when did you first think of creating such an event? What was the background of the process from the initial idea to the final form? What were the major challenges you and entire team encountered on the way?
Hey Alicja. It was a pleasure to meet you at the first edition of Connect. Thank you for being part of it!This event comes from 7 years of work with my city council in Bordeaux, changing the city’s policy for street skating, going from repressive to integrative, and integrating skateboarding in the urban development of the city. Basically, around 1999, after Bordeaux city built a skatepark, they decided to make skateboarding in the streets illegal. We were getting tickets, they were putting skate stoppers everywhere, etc. In 2017, we developed a mediation program, that put skateboarders, city users and the city council around the table. We then started doing public exhibitions collaboratively with the city, often taking the shape of skateable sculptures in public spaces, then integrated skateboarding in the urban planning of the city, with the idea of shared spaces. This led to the full legalization of skateboarding in the streets of Bordeaux in 2023. From all my trips and connections, I realized this was inspiring a lot of other skate crews and cities around the world, that wanted to do the same. What also was exciting, is that I realised what we did in Bordeaux is not something you can copy and paste, but something that would take different forms depending of the city and the context. Last year, we got together with Cote Ouest, the biggest event agency in town, and local skate organization City Skate Collective, to create an international event around what we now call Skaturbanism. It came pretty naturally, I felt like it was the perfect time to do it, and many people interested in the topic were excited to come to Bordeaux to learn and celebrate Skaturbanism, street skateboarding, and everything that’s around it. As for the challenges we encountered, we basically had to work like crazy within a few months in order to organize an event with 30 international speakers, 10 exhibitors, 8 skateable sculptures set up around town, 16 nationalities represented, a bunch of concerts and parties etc… So yeah, working a lot for months on this while doing a bunch of other projects for my sponsors and being a dad was the main challenge haha.
After 4 days spent in Bordeaux I thought that main theme of the event should be integration. How did you get everyone from skaters, artists, law makers, academic experts and city official involved in the contribution to the event creation? Why where cultural, artistic and health topics (in addition to skateboarding) essential in defining Connect program and its – now renowned – identity?
Yes, integration is key. Integration of skateboarding in public space, in the urban planning of cities, and integration of different actors, and of all people that can help make skateboarding better, in order to keep our beloved activity unique and special. I think presenting skateboarding as a cultural and social tool, with artistic values, is key in order to develop it correctly. I think a lot of cities only see and present skateboarding as a sport, and unfortunately, the Olympics didn’t help with that. I believe that skateboarding can make people’s life better, and that’s why we also wanted to talk about physical and mental health through the event. We had sports doctors, osteopaths, and mental health workers such as the legendary John Gardner in our program.
Bordeaux Métropole is home to 802,000 inhabitants in 28 towns, among which the city of Bordeaux with 260,000 inhabitants out of which around 35000 are regular and occasional skaters. It has also become one of the world’s most skateable cities in the world especially when it comes to street skating. Can you tell me more how youinitiated positive shift in Bordeaux’s approach to skateboarders and creating more friendly and thriving eco-system not only for the skating community but also for every resident?
We have to take these numbers with care, but we do have a lot of skateboarders in Bordeaux, and most importantly, a lot of people doing street skateboarding projects. It’s like a whole eco-system around skateboarding. So getting everyone on board about legalizing street skateboarding felt pretty organic. As for the city, and the residents, it took a shit load of meetings and work. We had to do hundreds of meetings before fully unlocking all the spots and working with the cultural and urban departments to make street spots. I think the main thing was to always be willing to share space, and thinking about this as a positive outcome not only for skaters, but for all Bordeaux people.
How would you personally define skateurbanism and what does it mean to you? How can legitimizing skateboarding actually improve cohabiting together in one place?Skaturbanism is the idea that street skateboarding can be beneficial for a city development. Like I just said, not only for skaters, but for everyone. How do we live better together in a city? How can skateboarding can bring benefits to a local population? To some public spaces? Skaturbanism can bring play, free physical activity, accessibility to culture, positive image, ecological mobility, and even sometimes safety, to some public spaces, and to a city.
It’s still hard to believe, but first edition of Connect is already over. What are your conclusions and lessons learned? How do you see the future of the next events?
It was worth it. I learned a lot in the process. I loved working with everyone, from the team, the participants, the artists, the city services etc. The conclusion is that we definitely need to do another edition in Bordeaux, and that, later on, we should try and do Connect in other cities and countries. My goal for the futute is that this event helps other cities and countries struggling with skateboarding being forbidden or stuck to skateparks, so there is a lot more to be done.
Thank you for your time and inspiring chat!
Thank you.
Interview & photography: Alicja Klitenik
More info: https://connect-skaturbanism-festival.com/
