High Vis Fest X Red Bull Road Gap
The High Vis Festival returned to Birmingham for its fifth year, last weekend over the 24th and 25th of September. High-Vis Festival celebrates all things street culture, from graffiti art to Skateboarding, breakdancing, street food, live music and workshops. It was all free as it's a non profit festival that welcomes all ages and everyone from all different walks of life. The event took place in Digbeth Tea works. There were over 30 artists involved, the lineup included artists such as Zooki, Annatomix, Tempo33, Title, Void and many more.
This year they collaborated with Red Bull UK where they hosted a Skate competition ‘Red Bull Road Gap.’ A load of Skaters from all over the midlands came down to take part. To name a few, Luke McManus who is sponsored by Krooked Skateboards, Kris Vile who is sponsored by Almost Skateboards, Tristan Jones, Sully Barnes and James Hewett. Sadly under 16s couldn't skate the gap as it's a safety issue, but Banter Skateboards had a mini jam for under 16s later on in the afternoon.
We caught up with Sully whose favourite Skate trick of the day was Tjs Smith grind flip out. He told us that if you want to get Skating in jams just relax and have fun but to remember Skatepark etiquette as it can get quite chaotic quickly. The setup he was Skating was 8.25 hockey deck, Ace Trucks, Spitfire formula Fours and a jumble of mix and match bearings over the years.
The Red Bull Road Gap was sponsored by Ideal Skate Shop, Banter Skate, Karma Skateboards and Skateboard GB.
We spoke to the owner of Banter, Celcio Santos. His favourite highlights are encouraging Fatima to drop in on the quarter pipe and her actually doing that and her being over the moon, Kris Vile frontside flip on the big quarter, Tristan Jones front side smith flip out on the rail was impeccable.
Banter Skateboards started with Celcio and his mates filming each other and over the years started gaining traction. Around 2019 he started experimenting with Skate Clothing and upped his game. Banter as a whole is about having humour and having a friendly exchange, having a child spirit child like mind not a childish mind and uniting the youth. The setup Celcio has at the moment is Ace hollow trucks, Bones Reds bearings, Orbs wheels. He tends to ride Liberalis Skateboard Decks but also his own brand Banter has decks out too.
Next time there's a skate event, come down to take part. All you will need is a Skateboard, Skate Shoes, we recommend Vans and to be careful, wear a Helmet and Knee Pads because falling over is a part of skateboarding.
