Me and Callum went across to the BRIGHT trade show in Frankfurt this year to check out one of Europe’s biggest gatherings of skateboard and street wear retailers.
We flew into town on the Thursday and got set up in a hostel across the road from the main train station. The first night we just buzzed out and got a street cruise on the go, checking out the famous ‘Mainhatten’ skyline. The streets were smooth and we clocked up at least 5 miles of rolling.
Friday was pissing down so we just went and checked out all the skate related stores in town. We hit up a couple of hipster emporiums called ‘Sneakerking’ and 'Azita' before moving on to ‘Railslide’…the only real skate store in the city. The locals were cool and we got coffee and water laid on in the in-store café. Nice touch.
The Pound is so weak right now against the Euro and we were on a tight budget…luckily we found a cool Asian joint that did massive portions for as little as 4 Euros.
That night we went out and about and hit up a club called ‘Monza’…pretty good tech/electro sounds but the crowd looked as though they’d just stepped out of a bank. Nae much cop.
Held in an incredible building in the centre of Frankfurt, the BRIGHT was a hive of frenzied activity across 5 floors and hundreds of rooms.
From the scene at the front door on the first day, we could tell that it was going to be full of hipsters. Cats with bobble hats were rolling up looking fresh as hell and there were the obligatory fixed gear bikes chained up to the lampposts.
Almost every company you could think of were present. There was so much going on…you could while away the hours wandering the floors and checking the rooms. I was super impressed with the effort that had gone in to set the building up. These were serious professionals at work.
You could hang out in various café areas and sup on coffee or raid the fridges in the show rooms and fill up on Red Bull and sandwiches. The auditorium was showing all kinds of interesting movie action too…the John Cardiel Epicly Later’d flick went down a storm even though it was poorly attended.
Personal highlights included the ‘Made for Skate’ exhibition, the indoor bowl with cradle that was getting a shredding by all and sundry and 'Basementizid' room with mad artistic happenings going on all weekend especially the incredible set by Frankfurt instrumental noise merchants Daturah.
The only lowlight for me was the presence of those ‘Fixed Gear London’ dickheads. Honestly boys, no one cares about you ‘sessioning’ a flatbank on a bike made for the velodrome. Thankfully, no one else seemed too interested in them either.
The after show do was at ‘Robert Johnson’…a club along the River Main in Offenbach, just outside the city. I was feeling this club…the crowd was a lot cooler and the music was on point…super solid electro with a smattering a techno bangers later on. A good night.
Sunday was spent back at the BRIGHT show to sample some more action. The bowl was being destroyed by the likes of Rune Glifberg, Juergen Horwarth, Julien Dykmans and Kevin Wenzke. The young ripper Wenzke killed it and deservedly ran out the winner. Check the footage on ‘Tackyworld’.
Monday was a free day so we found a wee skatepark set-up under a bridge and went for a mellow session there. Thanks to the friendly people at Frankfurt-Hostel for looking after us.
That was that…the BRIGHT is on again in the summer so head across and see for yourself. It’s a great place to hang out.
Cheers
Craig
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