Review: NASS Festival, Bath & West Showground

Over the last few years Nass has snowballed into one of the most essential Festivals in the UK, and that’s definitely not just because of the previous heroic line-ups including the likes of Cyprus Hill, Nas, Sum41, Public Enemy and High Contrast. What draws in a large percentage of the crowd are the 400 athletes who take the stage to compete in some of the most prestigious BMX and skating competitions and demos in the world. 

This year was no different. The sold out event saw 15,000 festival goers over four days, all of whom could enjoy a stunning display of tricks, flips and whips performed by athletes ranging in a wide spectrum of age and ability as well as a perfectly complimentary list of musicians including Jurassic 5, Andy C, Korrupt FM, My Nu Leng, Stormzy and Big Nastie. 

We were not able to arrive at the festival until Friday evening so quickly pitched our tent and headed out to catch a bit of the action. Over the last few years Nass has developed something of a stigma for having a lot of wasted, hormone-driven teenagers experiencing their first bit of real bass music.  There were undoubtedly a lot of teenyboppers floating and gurning about from the moment we got there, but you could see the organisers had done their best to ensure there were eyes watching over them so the rest of us could enjoy the real reasons for being there. 

The long weekend saw 100 acts across the festival’s seven music stages: The Main Stage, SouthBank, The Hangar, The Warehouse, Truck & Bearing and Sika Studios. On the Friday local gems My Nu Leng went B2B with Oneman and hyped the crowd perfectly for Andy C to headline the main stage. As in many outdoor arenas the music here ended at 11pm, and it seemed the general consensus (especially on the first night) was to join a diverse audience over at the main stage and then sift off into an area which suited your state of sobriety and rave vibes. We were definitely keen on making shapes so headed over to The Warehouse to enjoy Playaz legends Hype, Hazard, Eksman, Pascal and Daddy Earl, but to be honest we could have recommended any of the stages.

When we arose on Saturday morning the sky was significantly less blue and there were pretty hazardous gusts of wind. This is something that can be an issue to any rider on the 14ft vertical ramp. Matt Hoffman – an American BMX rider who is considered one of the best vert ramp riders in the history of the sport – was due to feature in a demo on early Saturday evening but the wind was so bad he had to disappoint the large crowd that had come to see him.

Although this year’s festival hosted the IBMXFF (International BMX Freestyle Federation) World Championships for the first time ever, amateur athletes were also invited to compete, with the top performers qualifying through to the pro competition. Jak Tones took the title for Amateur Park, Jon Kearns won Amateur Vert and Keegan Alves won Amateur Flatland. The skate competitions also included an amateur contest for the first time ever, in partnership with Mountain Dew. Not only did 70 challengers battle it out on the Pro Park, but the top three contenders – Aaron Jago, Luke Mcmanus and Cam Barr – will now go on to compete in the Dew Tour AM Series in Amsterdam.

Back to the music, and Saturday evening had one act which everyone was absolutely buzzing for, Jurassic 5. The six-piece American hip-hop band did not disappoint. They knew that everyone wanted the classics and as you can imagine everyone went wild for Concrete Schoolyard. Prior to this stand-out performance we witnessed a pretty dull performance from Stormzy, he got everyone dancing but then decided to ‘slow it down’ for five minutes and crack out some of his tracks where he attempts to sing and to be honest you could sense it drained everyone’s buzz. Other musical highlights from Saturday night included Leaf Dog and BVA, and a Sika Records Roadblock Showcase. A huge number of youngsters swarmed towards Devilman.

After a rainy Sunday the International BMX Freestyle Federation World Championships came to a close and Logan Martin, Vince Byron, Nick Bruce and Matthias Dandois took the World Champion titles. We also managed to finally see Matt Hoffman and friends catch around 10ft of air above the 14ft vert and it became pretty clear why the wind had been considered risky the day before. While many people partied on for one further night, we left to face the reality of a Monday morning in Bristol and missed out on the likes of Redlight, Knife Party, Dj Zinc and Benton. But to be honest, by that time we were ready for a real bed and a copious amount of junk food.