By Angela Kryhul
APIK
Montreal’s APIK winter event brought the mountain sport experience downtown
Earlier this year, TRIBU and the Quartier des Spectacles Partnership debuted the APIK sports-themed winter event in Montreal’s Latin Quarter. A stretch of Saint-Denis Street was transformed into a mini skill hill to host snowboard, ski and snowskate competitions. TRIBU president MICAH DESFORGES chats about animating downtowns, and how he’s bringing the Jackalope action sports festival to Virginia Beach.
How do urban sport events like APIK benefit downtowns?
We created this ski and snowboard festival to help give businesses the economic boost that’s much needed during the shoulder period. Mainly, it was the city saying, ‘Hey, we want to bring people back to the urban environment and we want to create something different.’ It was a super cool project with 25,000 people attending. It was a free, 10-day event, where people could try out the sports.
How did your partnership with Virginia Beach come about?
It’s a funny story. In late 2021, I went to the Sports ETA Conference in Birmingham, Alabama. I hadn’t been invited to the State of Virginia’s happy hour so I instead went to a dive bar in the middle of nowhere, and ended up bumping into someone from Virginia Beach at what was left of the nachos buffet. It was an instant fit.
I would say the main reason why they wanted Jackalope…is that they want to bring back Canadian tourists. Since COVID, Virginia Beach has had some of its best tourism, but it’s mostly domestic. Now that the border has reopened, they want to regain that international visitor. The action sports piece was also really key. There’s a huge skateboarding and surfing culture there, so they want to make a statement saying ‘we are an action sports destination.’
JACKALOPE: Virginia Beach 2023
The main venue for competitions and fan activations during Jackalope Virginia Beach (June 2-4, 2023), is the oceanfront at Neptune’s Park where participants will compete in skateboarding, bouldering, breaking, base jumping, skimboard, freestyle motocross and beach volleyball. A highlight of the free-to-the-public, three-day event is an appearance by skateboard legend Tony Hawk and friends on June 3.
To create excitement around Jackalope’s first U.S. edition, Chad Caruso began a 4,830-km, cross-country U.S. skateboard ride from Venice Beach, Calif., on March 24 and ending in Virginia Beach in time for the June event. The Long Island, N.Y.-based skateboarder and YouTuber is raising money for addiction awareness among youth.
Published April, 2023
