Or is it the Shaun White and Oakley Air & Style? Or the Oakley and Shaun White Air & Style? Whatever it is, it’s big and it’s happening 4th December.
Air & Style started in Innsbruck, Austria sometime in the 90’s, and moved to Munich around 2005. It laid claim to being one of the biggest snowboard competitions around the world when it moved into the massive 70,000 capacity Olympiastadion football stadium, and sorta pioneered the idea of snowboarding competition meets massive concert mashup.
Now, the Air & Style is coming to Beijing. Bankrolled by Oakley, Red Bull and the Beijing Olympic Sports Committee, it promises to be by far the biggest extreme sports event in China’s history. The question is, will the people come? China isn’t renowned for having a particularly rabid extreme sports community, and the idea of spending 4 hours in the cold in an outdoor stadium might not be to every Beijingers taste. To help things along, organizers have eschewed the traditional punk and hip hop influences and gone all in for China’s biggest pop superstar. Wang Lee Hom will play the event alongside Beijing indie darlings New Pants.
Check out the ramp under construction (image courtesy of DJ Chozie)
It’s happening on December 4th in Beijing’s Olympic Stadium. You can find out the details at the Air & Style website. Good luck to them all.