Red Bull and skateboarders from Nashville bring skateboarding and music venues back to life.
The phrase is making lemonade out of lemons is more than applicable right now.
Those making the lemonade is Red Bull teaming up with Exit/In and MVAN (Music Venue Alliance Nashville) to transform the famed rock venue into a private pop-up skate park for a series of socially distant skate sessions. Over the course of three days, nine skate crews from Nashville, Chattanooga and Memphis had the opportunity to ride custom-built features, capture content and listen to live sets from local DJs.
For the first time in over a year, the Exit/In was brought to life. Valued staff members returned to work, security welcomed guests and the bass bumped to the sound of optimism for the family of staff and the creative class who call Exit/in home.
Skateboarding being the common denominator that united the community.
“I think that the spirit of skate is shown best in competition because even though we are all there for the same purpose, we have a different reason/meaning on why we are there and by respecting someone else’s perspective you can gain a lot of insight,” said Jake Wooten, pro Red Bull skateboarder and Gallatin, TN native. “Finding similar minded groups with varying interests allow for a heightened sense of community and togetherness.”
Wooten dropped in on the action alongside local skaters as some of Nashville’s beloved DJs made their return to a live stage, including the Boom Bap’s DJ Rate and DJ Jerry J, drummer for Old Crow Medicine Show.
“Independent music venues are the soul of our city,” said Chris Cobb, Owner of Exit/In and President of MVAN, whose mission is to fiercely protect Nashville’s 15 independent music venue owners, operators and the ecosystem surrounding these notable properties. “Pretty quickly we realized it was existential and most of us realized we would go out of business if we didn’t do something about it,” he said. “Thus far we’ve been successful. We’ve been able to fend it off through fundraising initiatives, grant programs and a streaming series. That’s allowed us to collectively pool our resources and our talents to raise enough funds that we can all pay our bills.”
The transformation from rock club to skate park came together with a custom mini ramp built into the iconic Exit/In stage with an adjacent quarter-to-quarter hip feature. The pop-up park also utilized the venue’s outdoor space as a street section to accommodate skaters of all abilities.
Skateboarding has given me everything in my life,” said Wooten. “It’s given me purpose and a way to connect with people; a way to communicate with people that I can’t speak the same language with. I know music does the same thing, it’s just something that’s felt. Skate and music are intertwined. Beyond that, I throughly believe skateboarding is the least selective in who it chooses. Doesn’t matter if you’re big or small, happy or sad, skateboarding doesn’t single people out. It’s more likely to have a motley crew of skaters than to have a cookie cutter squad, and that’s exactly how it should be, and is exactly how the project was!”
Wooten added. “It’s an indescribable feeling what a good session will make you feel like. The music and lighting were different than what we are used to, but as soon as any of us step on board we are freed from those boundaries of our own imaginary cages and we can all feed off each other’s energy in a socially distant way.”
In true Nashville fashion, The Cadillac Three filmed a music video for the song “Bridges” from their Tabasco & Sweet Tea album (Big Machine Records) on the set of Red Bull Skate Nash Stages. The ACM Awards Group of the Year nominee’s relentless effort to #SaveOurStages over the course of the last year, paired with their roots in rock music made the skate setup a no-brainer for the trio.
“Anything new these days,” said TC3 lead vocalist Jaren Johnston. “I grew up skateboarding, so I thought it was a really cool thing to be a part of and Exit/in is our favorite place.” Fans can check out the video for “Bridges” coming in early April.
Visit mvan.org to donate and support Nashville’s independent music venues.