This September I flew to Spain to be the photographer of Skate Love Barcelona, the international skate music festival founded and hosted by BCN Roller Dance back in 2015.
I heard amazing things about this Festival by my friends from the Venice Beach skaters team (did you know I skated in LA for 2 years?) and I could finally see it with my eyes.
This year more than 1000 people got together to celebrate their love for skating!
I shot over 3000 pictures so here you’ll see only a selection here, which I had to compress a lot so excuse the bad quality! To view HD material please get in touch with me.
Skating Workshops in Barcelona
The third edition of Skate Love Festival this year started on September 14th with indoor workshops directly in the center of Barcelona. Teachers from all around the world came to teach and kick off this 2018 edition!
In the morning students attended the (sold out) classes that involved London flow by the NC, high-energy dancing on skates by Cecilia Klaus of Miss’ile, balance practicing by Quadzilla, Venice Beach’s downtown by Tony Limtiaco and much more.
This is Tony from Venice Beach teaching the “Downtown” move, the basic movement that has been carried on for years by the Venice Beach skaters, who welcomed me back in 2013 when I moved to Los Angeles.
Roller Skate Disco Party at La Carpa del Poble Espanyol – Barcelona
The day continued with the official starting of the Skate Love festival in the suggestive and evocating location ofPoble Espanyol, which hosts incredible reconstructions and architectures from different eras of the Spanish history. The evening kicked off with a NetRolling event and continued with an awesome roller disco party.
The Skate Love roller disco party was nothing less than a success. It was impressive to have so many people dancing under the lights of this Spanish location.
In between roller skating battles, performances and choreographies we danced the night out and went to sleep after 3 am!
Badalona Beach skate workshops
The workshops continued on Saturday 15th, the second day of Skate Love Barcelona Festival, at Platja dels Pescadors Badalona.
I was able to see Marawa the Amazing, 12 times world record champion, teaching her hula hooping class on skates: what they say is true, she nothing less than AMAZING!
More workshops taught by Kari Anne, Erika Cordeiro, Quadzilla, Miss’ile, the NC, Marawa’s Majorettes, Tony Limtiaco and many more. The classes went on for the whole afternoon, while people were already dancing at the skate beach party right across the stage.
Skate Beach Party in Badalona
The beach party on Saturday went on from 10am to 11pm, and it was so much fun!
Dj Kapi, Dj Bart, Dj Dr Drew and Rollers HiFi brought the music for the whole day, mixing classic roller skating jams with modern hits.
Different areas of the Skate Love Barcelona Festival were dedicated to skating, performing, djing, dancing, hula hooping, workshops, chilling, eating at the food trucks and much more.
So many legends from the international roller skating scene joined the party, including Michelle Estro Gen, incredible athlete and founder of Moxi Skates.
People came together for this event from many countries, including Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Holland, Denmark, Scotland, Ireland, Israel, UAE, England, Poland, Serbia, United States, Canada, Brazil, Senegal, and Australia.
We finished off the night with various international performances, including the rapper JFP from Long Beach singing her hit song “Roll Out”.
Badalona beach: THE place for skating
Even though the Festival was over, on Sunday and the next days we got together at Badalona Beach to skate together in front of the Mediterranean sea. People brought music and we just kept having a blast!
This spot in one of the most popular to skate, together with the plaza in front of the W hotel.
In 2019 Barcelona will also host the World Roller Games, and is expecting to have more than 120,000 visitors. That’s a rolling event you don’t wanna miss!
That’s all folks! If you love music festivals make sure to check out these pictures I took at the American-themed Summer Jamboree Festival in Senigallia as well!
See you next year Skate Love Barcelona and thank you for having me!
Ire
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