A village fete, only more airborne

PlayToon and the PlayOut day was a gem: many thanks to all the Urban Games crew: the half pipe team North east Parkour, the Rough Diamonds and Michael and Monjer for pulling this together. The Late show crowd piled in too. Over 800 visitors through the exhibition so far, stunned and moved by the sheer quality of skater, BMX and free running graphics, video and words. Show stays open Monday and Tuesday 11-4pm.

PlayToon Late Shows tonight, 7pm+...

 PlayToon hooks up with the Newcastle Late Shows. Plus the lauch of the PlayToon book. Holy Biscuit, 7pm+

"A thousand furlongs of sea....

...... for an acre of barren ground". Shakespeare's skaters? Perhaps with the new graff at Bridges, although Gateshead Council's Construction Services are worried because some of the graff is wthin 5m of the road which means they have to do something about it.... even though one of their staff has a nostalgic glint in his eye for skating. Meantime here is another view of Bridges from the PlayToon show.

PlayToon show goes up.....

...and looks stunning. Skateboard, BMX and parkour photography, huge in-your-face colour prints, rasterbator half tones, stunning and sweet video. Plus some more mysterious 3D items, including a remnant from the Wasteland. Here is Sebastian towards the end of the put-up day. Exhibition is open 15th-22nd May, 11am-4pm, with two specials. Friday 18th as part of Newcastle Late Shows 7pm-11pm and on Saturday 19th the Urban Games team host the live action with half pipe, parkour, urban dance and DJs from 4pm onwards. All welcome, free, bring your board, BMX, skates.

PlayToon book

Here is front of the book of the event, featuring photos, text and graphics from Tyneside street sports scenes. So many smiley tales "Early morning Sean would be there, he'd already been there for two hours. Then Bob would turn up and he'd be "YEAH". Then you'd go to Bob's house and skate the mini-ramp in the back garden. It was called Betsy" (Jamie). Do all mini ramps have names? They have histories for sure.

Pilgrim street sign , 2011

This sign appeared on the Bank of England down Pilgrim street sometime in 2011. The "Leap of Faith" finding its rightful place in Newcastle's architectural heritage. The Bank of England is now under attack. Check out most skate, BMX and free running videos from the Tyneside scenes; all the important places are despised plazas, hated concrete ledges or outlands that are nowhere between zombie malls and rotting car parks. Skaters, BMXers and free runners are great explorers and recognise a fine bit of nowhere when they see it.

PlayToon & PlayOut, two weeks away......

The PlayToon exhibition opens 16th May at Holy Biscuit (Shieldfield, Newcastle). On Friday 18th the exhibition is part of Newcastle Late Shows, 7-11pm. On 19th the PlayOut day features live action 4pm onwards hosted by Urban Games with half pipe for skate and BMX, Parkour c/o North east parkour, street dance, DJs and more. Exhibition features photography, video, words and more mysterious objects from Tyneside skate, BMX and PK scenes: work from Bish, Peter Greaves, Ben Larthe, Jacob Garthwaite, Liam Whitfield, Adam Thirtle, Sam Hutchinson, Daniel Dale, Johnny Haynes and many others. All welcome, free event.

"My first proper board.....

...was from Transit, it was £10, it was a blank with an Elements sticker on it, just the best board. Learnt ollies and kicks on it in my street and the next week I went to my friend's street, did an ollie, nose stalled and snapped my board and started crying" (Jamie). Well, it's either that or "mine was an Alien Workshop, but my truck broke and I was really angry so I chucked my board into the river". Which ever way it is a love story.