Snowboard on the Block Festival Returns for Second Year
by Tim Wenger
September might be the most anxiety-filled month of the year here in the Colorado. With summer starting to wind down and school kicking back in, the weeknight concert season slows and nights start ending earlier. Jeans become a necessity around the campfire. The tourists have all but returned home to the Midwest, lightening traffic just a hare. Everything appears to be mellowing out a bit. Then one morning, you find yourself waking up in a cold sweat, full of adrenaline and looking frantically back and forth around your bedroom trying to find a clue as to your abrupt awakening. A few seconds go by. You remember. It happened. Your annual dream of ripping pow lines and sticking that perfect Cab 5 off a freshly groomed booter has refilled your gut with the craving for snow, and you let out a slow, heavy sigh and immediately dread the thought of the next two months of anticipation. Work sucks that day, and it doesn’t look like it will be getting better for a while.
Luckily, Adam Schmidt and crew have an appetizer in store. The second installment of Snowboard on the Block, the largest snowboard film and music festival in the world, returns to Denver on September 13. “It is a film festival premiering all the new snowboarding films of the season,” says Schmidt, the promoter and founder of the event, whose name you may also recognize from the pages of Snowboard Colorado magazine. Snowboard on the Block is also “a music festival and rail jam competition all put together into one closed-street festival.” The event is all ages.
An LED wall will be used to show the films, which is new this year. “It’s three times the size that it was last year, with its’ own dedicated audio system,” says Schmidt. Jagermeister will also be bringing in an additional stage specifically for music, and the rail jam competition has also been stepped up. “We’ve got more snow, better riders.”
Capita will be hosting the world premiere of their new video DOA2 at the event. Videograss, Never Summer and Snowboarder Magazine will also be premiering their new films. At press time, Schmidt and his team had twenty films scheduled to show at the festival including the four world premieres. Fans will be able to stop by each company’s tent and pick up schwag, register to win a slew of prizes and maybe even meet some riders. “Every brand in snowboarding that becomes a part of this festival sets up their own tent, their own activation,” Schmidt says. “Everybody is trying to draw people to their tents by giveaways. The amount of chances to win new gear is just unbelievable, not to mention we have the retail part of it, where we put all the core snowboard shops in the region together to do a giant supersale.”
Think something along the lines of SNIAGRAB, but directly from the companies. “(These) guys are doing up to 70% off goods,” says Schmidt. “People are walking away getting their new boots for the season, a new deck.”
Showcasing Mobb Deep as the musical headliner, along with a slew of other national and local acts including (but not limited to) Misfits, Total Chaos, The Reminders, DJ MFM, Speedwolf, Expire, and Pizza Time, the festival is giving some hard-working Denver bands like King Rat, MF Ruckus and Plan B Rejects the opportunity to share the stage with top talent across many genre lines and in front of thousands of people.
Before last year, the event had taken place at Red Rocks and was dubbed ‘Snowboard on the Rocks,’ but the vision of Schmidt and the team to include more music and films, as well as the rail jam, didn’t fit within the confines the amphitheater. Taking it to the streets, where more films, music, and people could fit, seemed like the logical approach. “We needed something that was more scale-able,” Schmidt says. “Red Rocks is an amazing venue to an event at, but when looking at taking it beyond three films, beyond three bands that played, giving something for everybody was way too restrictive.”
The SOTB team wanted to let festival goers see as many films as possible, the main impetus for moving the event. “It was really hard to select just three films. This festival allows us to not only bring the competition side of things, where people can actually see these snowboarders that have parts in the films, but we’re able to include everybody from the largest productions to the small guys that are just starting to make films.”
Sailor Jerry will be on hand with a tattoo team giving free tattoos all day, but expect a line if you don’t get there early. “I highly suggest people get there early,” Schmidt says. “11:00 is going to start the festivities, and I think people learned last year that some of the best goods were given away early in the day.” The Rail Jam kicks off at 1:00 pm, with music and films taking place throughout the day. “It’s a festival that encompasses the entire culture of snowboarding. It is a celebration about the season coming, one giant party to kick off the season. It showcases everything in snowboarding. If you are just beginning snowboarding, there’s something for you. You learn more about the culture that you want to be involved in. For those that have been in the industry for years, all the pros are there. It’s one big party.”
Never Summer will be making custom Snowboard on the Block snowboards that will be raffled away to ticket holders to buy tickets in advance. Two extremely lucky ticket holders, who purchase tickets in advance will win a heli-boarding trip in Revelstoke, British Columbia courtesy of Eagle Pass Heliskiing, so get your tickets in advance.
Find more information on the event and purchase tickets here– blockfestival.com
Category: Buzzworthy2
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