1. Shred Cologne 2013 in a few words – how it was improved this year?
Marco Sichau - the man behind the "Shred Cologne"
It was definitively the biggest thing I ever managed so far. We had a new visitor’s record with more than 450 visitors from 12 different nations in there, what makes us proud. Because of the huge support from the sponsors we were able to build many additional obstacles like the “big mama” Hedonskate obstacle and of course we had more prizes and money for the winners. We improved so much stuff. The tradeshow and the sideshow skatepark were even bigger compared to 2012. We also tried to put more love into details like in the whole look of the event. Everything got its own color & style like black ramps, the shred merchandise, every media content and so on…
2. The event had some TV coverage this time too, are the TV guys approached you by themselves?
Yes, they called us ones and asked for a documentary about the event and blading history, 25 minutes long, for German TV. What else could I have done than to comply? That was a big deal for us and perfect to make the sport famous again to thousands of kids out there. It will be on air the upcoming Saturday at 5pm on WDR. After this it will be online to for all the international people.
Marco / Mute Transfer
3. You put a lot of focus on Young Guns contest and generally on juniors – do you see your event is helping to get new blood to the sport?
We decided to put more focus on the kids at the Shred Cologne with the Hedonskate junior’s competition and it worked very well. We had many registrations and they did crazy tricks. The parents, non blading visitors and the people from TV have been very impressed about the kids and the potential. To my mind, events motivate the kids to try new stuff and to work on their trick vocabulary. But we need more than competitions and so we have bigger plans for 2014. Stay tuned… I see a big future for blading, when I look into skateparks today.
Shred Cologne Crew
4. What is missing in today`s blade contests according to you, what could we change to make it more attractive for people?
To my mind the competitions that we have today are very well organized. For sure it should be standard to have some sideshow action beside the competition like a place to chill, pick some food or drinks, a tradeshow area, toilets etc. that makes it more interesting for family’s to visit a competition with their kids on a free weekend.
5. Can we expect the Shred Cologne next year ?
Yes, there will be the Shred Cologne III in 2014 and two more projects we started working on. But they are still top secret. Thanks to every visitor and supporter of the event!