WINTERCLASH IN-THE-KNOW WITH JOJO JACOBI

Tags: berlin, competitions, comps, europe, events, germany, ispo, jojo jacobi, winterclash

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WINTERCLASH is barely one week away! This year the madness moves to Berlin for what promises to be one of the biggest rollerblading comps ever! Now in its 6th year, Winterclash is moving forward in some new directions with a big new venue and new park custom-built for the event! Since we've never had an “In-The-Know” about Winterclash before (how is that possible?), we thought it was time to give you the chance to ask whatever you wanted to know about the Winterclash event. Below are your questions + answers from the one and only JoJo Jacobi! -B

WINTERCLASH is barely one week away! This year the madness moves to Berlin for what promises to be one of the biggest rollerblading comps ever! Now in its 6th year, Winterclash is moving forward in some new directions with a big new venue and new park custom-built for the event!

Since we've never had an “In-The-Know” about Winterclash before (how is that possible?), we thought it was time to give you the chance to ask whatever you wanted to know about the Winterclash event.

Be-Mag will be out at Winterclash in full force next week bringing you great coverage, but until then, below are your questions + answers from the one and only JoJo Jacobi! -B

SPORK: Getting your own park set up just for the contest is an amazing feat; how did you pull it off?

We had the choice of keeping the event in existing skateparks, but that would have meant that not everybody would be able to see the event, because there just isn’t any park in Europe big enough to fit everybody. So we decided to step up our game and move into a big event area to guarantee that there will be enough space for everybody as well as all the non-rolling spectators.

In an empty event location you have no other choice besides renting a park or building something by yourself, so that’s all we could do. Its hard financially, but it was the only way to make this work and let the event grow!

KILLINESOFTLY: What is the park going to be like?

We rented a former LG Games Park. Should be interesting since it's quite big and also it’s the first time that we rented a park and build it up in an empty event area.

TOE-BEE: Will it be possible to just skate on the first day (without being registered for competition) like it was for previous Winterclash events?

Yes, that’s not a problem. Everybody can skate the park on Friday from 11:00 until around 5 p.m. and on Saturday from 10:00 until around 2 p.m.

SPANIARD: What's your favorite song?

It goes kind of like this, “hey jojo let me play at afterclash, let let let me playyyy come on, ey jojo let me…….” And you know who wrote the song...

GRABIETZ: Will Winterclash be promoted to non-rollerblading people? If yes, what are the plans (TV, newspaper, radio, other)?

Next to the massive promotion we are doing on all Rollerblading websites right now we are promoting the Winterclash to non-rolling people in Berlin as well.

We secured a major radio partner who is airing a Winterclash trailer a couple of times a day in the week before the event. There are posters all over the city as well as in metro stations, flyers distributed in shops, bars, restaurants and clubs, stickers, a trailer in the Berlin metro TV. And we also have announcements in Berlin's magazines and newspapers as well as on their websites!

I think we did what we could do, but still you never know if it will affect the numbers of non-rolling spectators. Berlin is a crazy city with loads of events going on daily and people in Berlin are spoiled as hell. So we will see if it was worth the effort!

CHEFKOCH / TOBIEN: Why does Winterclash always happen on such a shitty date? I have exams the day before and after the event! / Same with me. My guess is that ISPO is from February 7-10. German universities hate le clash...

It doesn’t matter which date we put the event, some people will be unhappy with it. The exam periods for students are different in every country, so it's hard to make it work.

We’re sorry if some people can’t make it and we seriously hope you will be able to come over next year! The date will stay the same I guess since we also want to be 2 weeks before Bitter Cold so that all the Pros have time to get back to the US and prepare for that one!

ROLLINGDIST46SWEDEN: Is it ok to bring some music to play before and after Winterclash? I'm talking about Hip Hop, Rock, Punk, Dance, Electro... some chill, upbeat music while chatting and getting to know everyone... some feel good beats! I've heard from other people that it hasn't been a crowd pleaser in the past...

We know that music was a problem in the past and we worked on that issue. There will be a great event DJ for the day time and we've worked out a great program for the Pre- and Afterclash.

I´m confident that people will be happy this time!

JONFROMM: Winterclash brings a lot of US Pros over for the contest, but it's really hard for us AM's to make it over. Have you ever thought of possibly holding a contest in the US to qualify more AM's and bring them over for the event?

Well, we never paid for the Pros to come over. That’s just not in the budget. So it would be hard to get AM’s over for the comp as wel. For sure, it would be great to find a way to make that happen and you never know, but yeah… not right now. But who knows what will happen in the future?

BE-MAG: Anything else?

The only thing left to say is that we are truly looking forward to welcoming everybody in Berlin! We are confident that every one of you will enjoy the Winterclash 2010 to the fullest and we can already guarantee that you will not believe your eyes once you enter the venue! From the competition to the party, everything has been thought through and everything from the park all the way to the sound and light setup is well-planned! Come and join us!

Go to WINTERCLASH.com for all the details!