Exibitions
Concert / DJ Set
Projection
Conference / Round table
Skate session

Salle Capitulaire / Capitular Hall

International Workshop – “Sciences and Skateboard”

Connect x ESSCA
All day
Léo Sharp Photos
Dr Kirsty Smith Photos
Iséki Nobuo Photos
Vanessa Udriot Photos
Soy Panday Photos
Lome Photos
19:00 - 21:30

La Cour / The Courtyard

Fred Mortagne Photos
19:00 - 21:30

Official Openning

19:30 - 20:15

Video Premieres

Magenta Hill street Blues 3
Monstro de Bangkok
20:00 - 20:45
Dancing Therapy Concert
21:00 - 00:00

Miroir d'Eau / The Water Mirror

Skate session

Skate Her
15:00 - 18:00

Salle Capitulaire / Capitular Hall

Léo Sharp Photos
Dr Kirsty Smith Photos
Vanessa Udriot Photos
Soy Panday Photos
Iséki Nobuo Photos
Lome Photos
13:00 - 19:00

Skateboarding in Bordeaux: An Urban Story

Baptiste Pointillard
14:30 - 15:00

Behind the Lens : Co-Creating Skateboard Media

Léo Sharp Photos
Dr Kirsty Smith Photos
15:00 - 15:45

Raw Exteriors

Camile Ayme
16:15 - 16:45

The fight for Cultural Preservation and Urban Equity

April Jones
16:45 - 17:15

H3ADZ

Harrison Woolgar
17:30 - 17:45

La Cour / The Courtyard

Fred Mortagne Photos
13:00 - 18:45

MX x Ed Banger Night

Bareo (MX) Concert
Bonito Boy (Ed Banger) Concert
Malino (MX) Concert
Feadz (Ed Banger) Concert
18:00 - 00:00

Miroir d'Eau / The Water Mirror

Free session

All day

Salle Capitulaire / Capitular Hall

Yoga session Namaskate

Lauren Valls
10:00 - 11:00
Léo Sharp Photos
Dr Kirsty Smith Photos
Vanessa Udriot Photos
Iséki Nobuo Photos
Soy Panday Photos
Lome Photos
11:00 - 19:00

Skaturbanism in Under-Recognised Places

Skateistan
Denia Kopita
Dr Indigo Willing
Dr Marie “Maz” Mayassi
11:30 - 12:15

Make Life Skate Life

Make Life Skate Life Photos
12:15 - 12:45

Guided Tour – Vanessa Udriot Exhibition

Vanessa Udriot Photos
13:00 - 13:15

Saving Vale

Los Flanantes
14:00 - 15:00

“You Have to Start Somewhere”

René Olivo – Chef Family
15:00 - 15:30

Tokyo tactical skaturbanism

Kai Kagitani
Takahiro Yamazaki
15:45 - 16:45

La Cour / The Courtyard

Connect Village

Stands, Bar & Snacking
10:00 - 19:00
Fred Mortagne Photos
11:00 - 19:00

Connect Party Concert

19:00 - 00:00

Miroir d'Eau / The Water Mirror

Skate Session Concert

Mellifera Concert
17:00 - 19:00

Salle Capitulaire / Capitular Hall

Mat Pilates for skateboarders

Lauren Valls
10:00 - 11:00
Léo Sharp Photos
Dr Kirsty Smith Photos
Vanessa Udriot Photos
Iséki Nobuo Photos
Soy Panday Photos
Lome Photos
10:00 - 18:00

Mountain High Valley Low

Madars Apse
Yves Marchon
11:30 - 11:45

Build It And They Will Come

Julian Dykmans
11:45 - 12:00

Economic Crisis in the Skate Industry

Jim Thiebaud
HLC
Magenta
Riot
14:00 - 15:00

Trivia Skate Quizz

La Lodge AKA Thibault Carpentier
16:00 - 18:00

La Cour / The Courtyard

Fred Mortagne Photos
10:00 - 18:00

Connect Village

Stands, Bar & Snacking
10:00 - 18:00

Guided Tour – Fred Mortagne Exhibition

Fred Mortagne Photos
13:00 - 13:15

Closing DJ set Dj Sets

DJ Gramboy
15:00 - 18:00

Cours du Chapeau Rouge

Miroir d'Eau / The Water Mirror

Freestyle Battle Japan x Brazil

21:00 - 21:30

Place Rohan

Guided Visit : Skaturbanism in Bordeaux

Leo Valls
10:30 - 11:15

International Workshop – “Sciences and Skateboard”

Born in the United States in the 1950s, skateboarding has evolved over time to become a bridge between sport, social practice, and culture, while maintaining a strong connection to urban space.

Despite ongoing stigmatization, skateboarding has become a creator of identities, influencing fields such as fashion and music, serving as a vehicle for expression, and embracing values of diversity and inclusion.

As a result, these emerging dynamics make skateboarding a rich subject of study within the Humanities and Social Sciences (sociology, urban studies, history, public management, economics, etc.).

Connect x ESSCA

In collaboration with ESSCA – School of Management, the 2025 edition of the Connect Festival presents the first international workshop “Sciences and Skateboarding”, inviting researchers to meet, share their work if they wish, and collectively reflect on future research perspectives.

Exhibitions Thursday

Léo Sharp

Léo Sharp is a British photographer specializing in skateboarding, regarded as one of the UK’s most influential in the field. Former photo editor of Sidewalk magazine, he has been capturing the energy and creativity of the skate scene for over 20 years, with features in Thrasher, Kingpin, and Skateboarder.

For Connect Festival, he joins forces with Dr Kirsty Smith for an exhibition where their approaches complement each other : one through decades of capturing skate life across evolving cityscapes, the other through critical research and culture-based production.

Dr Kirsty Smith

Dr Kirsty Smith is a British photographer and researcher, specializing in fashion, extreme sports, and skate culture. Holding a PhD in Photography and teaching at Arts University Plymouth, she has collaborated with brands such as Nike, Adidas, Vans, and Vogue, and exhibited at international festivals.

For Connect Festival, she joins forces with Léo Sharp for an exhibition where their approaches complement each other : one through decades of capturing skate life across evolving cityscapes, the other through critical research and culture-based production.

Iséki Nobuo

Born in Kochi, Japan in 1976. Started photography as a teenager, shooting his skater friends with disposable cameras. Began working as a photographer in 2000. Launched PANCAKE Skateboard Magazine in 2024. Continues to document skateboarding in Japan and abroad as a photographer and editor.

Vanessa Udriot

Skater, architect, and artist from Lausanne, Switzerland, Vanessa Udriot will exhibit a new art installation at this year’s Connect festival. She will explore fluid, non-normative occupations of public space with a series of flags that transform borders into poetic maps of urban freedom. As a skaturbanist, and a skateable sculpture creator, she will share how skateboarding led her to study architecture, how architecture inspired her vision of skateboarding and how her artistic practice became a space of freedom and expression—much like skateboarding itself.

Vanessa is also the co-founder of the local association @lausanneskateboardclub, which has developed international inclusive programs for women, parent-child sessions, initiatives for immigrants and refugees (mainly unaccompanied minors and women), and international collaborations.

Soy Panday

Soy Panday is a French professional skateboarder, artist, and actor, best known for his contribution to skate culture from the 2000s to the present day. Born in Orléans in 1977, he first made a name for himself on the French skate scene in the 1990s, then internationally in the 2000s. In 2010, alongside Vivien and Jean Feil, he co-founded Magenta Skateboards, where he serves as Art Director.

His graphic art is poetically surreal, narrative, and positive, at times even shamanic. Always on the boundary between two worlds—dream and reality, night and day, yin and yang—Panday invites us to follow him into depths that are never dark, from which we can peacefully observe a parallel dimension : that of the spirit.

Beyond Magenta, for which he designs boards and apparel, he has collaborated with brands such as Adidas, Vans, and DC, producing shoes adorned with his artwork, as well as with artists including Mark Gonzales, Raphael Zarka, Benjamin Deberdt, Ocean Howell, and Brian Lotti.

Soy Panday lives and works in Paris.

Lome

Exhibition Jeudi Outdoor

Fred Mortagne

Lyon-based photographer and filmmaker Fred Mortagne developed his unique eye through skateboarding, which he has practiced since childhood. Starting out as a videographer in the 1990s for brands such as éS, Flip, and Cliché, he later turned to photography, cultivating a highly personal style: grainy black and white, geometric compositions, and bold plays of light and shadow.

His work goes beyond traditional sports photography, highlighting the elegance of movement and the dialogue between skaters and urban architecture. Inspired by masters like Cartier-Bresson and Lucien Hervé, he grounds his approach in a rigorous photographic tradition while anchoring it in action and lived urban experience.

For over a decade, his work has gained international recognition with exhibitions across the US, Europe, Australia, and Brazil, and he has received major awards including Red Bull Illume (2007) and the Pro Photographer Showdown (2017). In 2016, he published Attraper au Vol, reissued in 2024.

Fred also extends his practice to other art forms, including dance, theater, and classical music (Auditorium de Lyon, Ensemble Pygmalion, Opéra de Lyon, Théâtre du Châtelet). His career reflects the growing cultural recognition of skateboarding, from the streets to major stages.

Official Openning

Video Premieres

Magenta Hill street Blues 3

Filmed by Stéphane Feugas, Zach Chamberlain, Benjamin Gore

 @permavacay @feugz @lowgunmathyous @lookatbensphoto

Monstro de Bangkok

This short film takes place in Thailand’s capital city. Featuring the creative skating of @rollersurfer @charles_myatt__ & @leovallsconnected embedded in a vibrant picturesque scenery blending vernacular and ultramodern architectures. In other words, a fertile soil blooming with unique looking and untouched skate spots. A memorable journey, motivated by the passion of exploring new grounds, meeting people, learning about cultures while documenting on Kodak Super8 motion picture film and VX1000 digital video.

Filmed by Rémi Luciani @remiluciani in Bangkok.

Thursday evening

Dancing Therapy

Skate session

Skate Her

Exhibitions Friday

Léo Sharp

Léo Sharp is a British photographer specializing in skateboarding, regarded as one of the UK’s most influential in the field. Former photo editor of Sidewalk magazine, he has been capturing the energy and creativity of the skate scene for over 20 years, with features in Thrasher, Kingpin, and Skateboarder.

For Connect Festival, he joins forces with Dr Kirsty Smith for an exhibition where their approaches complement each other : one through decades of capturing skate life across evolving cityscapes, the other through critical research and culture-based production.

Dr Kirsty Smith

Dr Kirsty Smith is a British photographer and researcher, specializing in fashion, extreme sports, and skate culture. Holding a PhD in Photography and teaching at Arts University Plymouth, she has collaborated with brands such as Nike, Adidas, Vans, and Vogue, and exhibited at international festivals.

For Connect Festival, she joins forces with Léo Sharp for an exhibition where their approaches complement each other : one through decades of capturing skate life across evolving cityscapes, the other through critical research and culture-based production.

Vanessa Udriot

Skater, architect, and artist from Lausanne, Switzerland, Vanessa Udriot will exhibit a new art installation at this year’s Connect festival. She will explore fluid, non-normative occupations of public space with a series of flags that transform borders into poetic maps of urban freedom. As a skaturbanist, and a skateable sculpture creator, she will share how skateboarding led her to study architecture, how architecture inspired her vision of skateboarding and how her artistic practice became a space of freedom and expression—much like skateboarding itself.

Vanessa is also the co-founder of the local association @lausanneskateboardclub, which has developed international inclusive programs for women, parent-child sessions, initiatives for immigrants and refugees (mainly unaccompanied minors and women), and international collaborations.

Soy Panday

Soy Panday is a French professional skateboarder, artist, and actor, best known for his contribution to skate culture from the 2000s to the present day. Born in Orléans in 1977, he first made a name for himself on the French skate scene in the 1990s, then internationally in the 2000s. In 2010, alongside Vivien and Jean Feil, he co-founded Magenta Skateboards, where he serves as Art Director.

His graphic art is poetically surreal, narrative, and positive, at times even shamanic. Always on the boundary between two worlds—dream and reality, night and day, yin and yang—Panday invites us to follow him into depths that are never dark, from which we can peacefully observe a parallel dimension : that of the spirit.

Beyond Magenta, for which he designs boards and apparel, he has collaborated with brands such as Adidas, Vans, and DC, producing shoes adorned with his artwork, as well as with artists including Mark Gonzales, Raphael Zarka, Benjamin Deberdt, Ocean Howell, and Brian Lotti.

Soy Panday lives and works in Paris.

Iséki Nobuo

Born in Kochi, Japan in 1976. Started photography as a teenager, shooting his skater friends with disposable cameras. Began working as a photographer in 2000. Launched PANCAKE Skateboard Magazine in 2024. Continues to document skateboarding in Japan and abroad as a photographer and editor.

Lome

Skateboarding in Bordeaux: An Urban Story

Baptiste Pointillard

Baptiste Pointillard is a history and geography teacher in a secondary school. His doctoral thesis, defended in 2024, explored the history of skateboarding as a lens through which to analyse the making of the city. His research focuses on how residents engage with urban space in order to make it their own.

Behind the Lens : Co-Creating Skateboard Media

How are the images and narratives that shape skate culture born? Léo Sharp and Dr Kirsty Smith, share their dual perspective on media creation in skateboarding.

Drawing from their complementary experiences, they will explore the collaborative dynamics between skaters, photographers, media, and cities.

This talk will examine how skateboarding, far beyond a sport, becomes a shared language, co-authored by those who live it and those who document it. A conversation to understand how image and experience intertwine to write the story of a culture in motion.

Léo Sharp

Léo Sharp is a British photographer specializing in skateboarding, regarded as one of the UK’s most influential in the field. Former photo editor of Sidewalk magazine, he has been capturing the energy and creativity of the skate scene for over 20 years, with features in Thrasher, Kingpin, and Skateboarder.

For Connect Festival, he joins forces with Dr Kirsty Smith for an exhibition where their approaches complement each other : one through decades of capturing skate life across evolving cityscapes, the other through critical research and culture-based production.

Dr Kirsty Smith

Dr Kirsty Smith is a British photographer and researcher, specializing in fashion, extreme sports, and skate culture. Holding a PhD in Photography and teaching at Arts University Plymouth, she has collaborated with brands such as Nike, Adidas, Vans, and Vogue, and exhibited at international festivals.

For Connect Festival, she joins forces with Léo Sharp for an exhibition where their approaches complement each other : one through decades of capturing skate life across evolving cityscapes, the other through critical research and culture-based production.

Raw Exteriors

Camile Ayme

Camille Ayme is a visual artist and architect. Her work explores the components of the modern city and the imaginaries of mobility, with particular attention to landscapes shaped by human extractive activities.

In 2025, she is defending a practice-based research PhD carried out between the École Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie in Arles and Aix-Marseille University, in which she investigates the notions of landscape and the Anthropocene through the study of stone and mineral quarries. These extraction sites, which she documents through image and text, become the stage for a sensitive reflection on geological transformations, the effects of mining capitalism, and the ways in which they are inscribed in the contemporary making of territory. Within this context, she is conducting in-depth research on the materiality of the city and its connection to skateboarding, a subject that has always been present in her work since her master’s degree in architecture. She co-directed the film Extérieurs Bruts with Diane de Viry, with the support of the Fondation des Artistes.

The fight for Cultural Preservation and Urban Equity

April Jones

H3ADZ

HEADZ is a skate video series by Harrison Woolgar. In this third chapter, Harrison immerses us in the heart of Brighton’s skate scene in England. Filmed over nine months with a VX camera, it captures the raw energy and diversity of the city’s spots—from iconic landmarks to hidden gems. Local skaters like Albie Edmonds, Evan Johnson, Michael Tarry, and Diggs English are seen climbing rooftops, hitting back alleys, scouring Google Maps, and battling the UK’s rough, unforgiving streets. The result ? A pure reflection of Brighton’s identity through skateboarding.

Harrison Woolgar

Exhibitions Friday Outdoor

Fred Mortagne

Lyon-based photographer and filmmaker Fred Mortagne developed his unique eye through skateboarding, which he has practiced since childhood. Starting out as a videographer in the 1990s for brands such as éS, Flip, and Cliché, he later turned to photography, cultivating a highly personal style: grainy black and white, geometric compositions, and bold plays of light and shadow.

His work goes beyond traditional sports photography, highlighting the elegance of movement and the dialogue between skaters and urban architecture. Inspired by masters like Cartier-Bresson and Lucien Hervé, he grounds his approach in a rigorous photographic tradition while anchoring it in action and lived urban experience.

For over a decade, his work has gained international recognition with exhibitions across the US, Europe, Australia, and Brazil, and he has received major awards including Red Bull Illume (2007) and the Pro Photographer Showdown (2017). In 2016, he published Attraper au Vol, reissued in 2024.

Fred also extends his practice to other art forms, including dance, theater, and classical music (Auditorium de Lyon, Ensemble Pygmalion, Opéra de Lyon, Théâtre du Châtelet). His career reflects the growing cultural recognition of skateboarding, from the streets to major stages.

MX x Ed Banger Night

Bareo (MX)

Bonito Boy (Ed Banger)

Malino (MX)

Feadz (Ed Banger)

FEADZ is a renowned Parisian DJ and producer who has been active for over twenty years. Working at the intersection of hip-hop and techno since the beginning of his career, he has collaborated with numerous artists such as Dj Mehdi, Mr Oizo, Karlito, Uffie, and Justice.

He has released his productions on influential independent labels like Ed Banger and BpitchControl, as well as on innovative underground labels such as Moveltraxx, Paradoxe Club, FDZ-INC, and Promesses.

Feadz is known for being an excellent DJ—technical, versatile, and passionate. He has been a resident on Rinse France for 10 years.

Free session

Yoga session Namaskate

Namaskate with Lauren Mahan Valls, yoga teacher.

1 hour. Pay what you want. 

How can you combine your love of skateboarding and its nefarious effects of its practice on the body with well-being and longevity?

The answer may be in listening to oneself and in a regular practice of yoga that combines stretching, strengthening and restorative breathing.

American Lauren Mahan-Valls has been developing with Léo Valls for several years now what they call Namaskate, a yoga sequence calibrated on the skater’s body, and the pain and injuries related to the practice. Come and enjoy a Namaskate session in the Cour Mably, on Saturday, October 18, at 10 a.m., to start off a weekend that promises to be full!

Lauren Valls

Yoga teacher

Exhibitions Saturday

Léo Sharp

Léo Sharp is a British photographer specializing in skateboarding, regarded as one of the UK’s most influential in the field. Former photo editor of Sidewalk magazine, he has been capturing the energy and creativity of the skate scene for over 20 years, with features in Thrasher, Kingpin, and Skateboarder.

For Connect Festival, he joins forces with Dr Kirsty Smith for an exhibition where their approaches complement each other : one through decades of capturing skate life across evolving cityscapes, the other through critical research and culture-based production.

Dr Kirsty Smith

Dr Kirsty Smith is a British photographer and researcher, specializing in fashion, extreme sports, and skate culture. Holding a PhD in Photography and teaching at Arts University Plymouth, she has collaborated with brands such as Nike, Adidas, Vans, and Vogue, and exhibited at international festivals.

For Connect Festival, she joins forces with Léo Sharp for an exhibition where their approaches complement each other : one through decades of capturing skate life across evolving cityscapes, the other through critical research and culture-based production.

Vanessa Udriot

Skater, architect, and artist from Lausanne, Switzerland, Vanessa Udriot will exhibit a new art installation at this year’s Connect festival. She will explore fluid, non-normative occupations of public space with a series of flags that transform borders into poetic maps of urban freedom. As a skaturbanist, and a skateable sculpture creator, she will share how skateboarding led her to study architecture, how architecture inspired her vision of skateboarding and how her artistic practice became a space of freedom and expression—much like skateboarding itself.

Vanessa is also the co-founder of the local association @lausanneskateboardclub, which has developed international inclusive programs for women, parent-child sessions, initiatives for immigrants and refugees (mainly unaccompanied minors and women), and international collaborations.

Iséki Nobuo

Born in Kochi, Japan in 1976. Started photography as a teenager, shooting his skater friends with disposable cameras. Began working as a photographer in 2000. Launched PANCAKE Skateboard Magazine in 2024. Continues to document skateboarding in Japan and abroad as a photographer and editor.

Soy Panday

Soy Panday is a French professional skateboarder, artist, and actor, best known for his contribution to skate culture from the 2000s to the present day. Born in Orléans in 1977, he first made a name for himself on the French skate scene in the 1990s, then internationally in the 2000s. In 2010, alongside Vivien and Jean Feil, he co-founded Magenta Skateboards, where he serves as Art Director.

His graphic art is poetically surreal, narrative, and positive, at times even shamanic. Always on the boundary between two worlds—dream and reality, night and day, yin and yang—Panday invites us to follow him into depths that are never dark, from which we can peacefully observe a parallel dimension : that of the spirit.

Beyond Magenta, for which he designs boards and apparel, he has collaborated with brands such as Adidas, Vans, and DC, producing shoes adorned with his artwork, as well as with artists including Mark Gonzales, Raphael Zarka, Benjamin Deberdt, Ocean Howell, and Brian Lotti.

Soy Panday lives and works in Paris.

Lome

Skaturbanism in Under-Recognised Places

  1. Dr Indigo Willing (facilitator) – co-author ‘Skateboarding, Power and Change’
  2. Denia – Free Skate Movement and Skateistan
  3. Marie Maz Mayassi – Melanin Gals and Pals

How can skater-led social programs around the world have the power to renew and restore
overlooked, war-affected, and stigmatized urban spaces? Could innovative approaches help
create more inclusive and safer spaces while being co-designed and shared globally ?


At Connect, we’re proud to include in our vast 2025 program a special panel talk on this
important matter including Denia Kopita from Skateistan (who partner with countries around the
globe and through the Goodpush Alliance and Free Movement Skateboarding) and Dr Marie
‘Maz’ Mayassi, Founder and Exec. Director of Melanin Gals and Pals (with a focus on Black,
Indigenous, People of Colour and Queer skaters).


This panel talk will explore how skateboarding programs can educate, refresh, and regenerate
rapidly developing cities to war zones from the perspectives of non-traditional skateboarders in
programs dedicated to empowering diverse populations. Themes include how social
skateboarding projects, activists and researchers are reshaping public spaces into sites of
healing, connection, and possibility.


The talk will be facilitated by Dr. Indigo Willing, a war orphan, refugee/adoptee, author, of
‘Skateboarding, Power and Change’ (co-written with Anthony Pappalardo) and academic at The
University of Sydney whose life was shaped by both conflict and skateboarding.


Connect will take place in Bordeaux, France, on October 16-19.

Skateistan

Denia Kopita

Free Skate Movement & Skateistan.

Dr Indigo Willing

co-author of Skateboarding, Power and Change.

Dr Marie “Maz” Mayassi

Founder of Melanin Gals and Pals.

Make Life Skate Life

Make Life Skate Life

Guided Tour – Vanessa Udriot Exhibition

Vanessa Udriot

Skater, architect, and artist from Lausanne, Switzerland, Vanessa Udriot will exhibit a new art installation at this year’s Connect festival. She will explore fluid, non-normative occupations of public space with a series of flags that transform borders into poetic maps of urban freedom. As a skaturbanist, and a skateable sculpture creator, she will share how skateboarding led her to study architecture, how architecture inspired her vision of skateboarding and how her artistic practice became a space of freedom and expression—much like skateboarding itself.

Vanessa is also the co-founder of the local association @lausanneskateboardclub, which has developed international inclusive programs for women, parent-child sessions, initiatives for immigrants and refugees (mainly unaccompanied minors and women), and international collaborations.

Saving Vale

Saving Vale or how Vale do Anhangabaú, the most famous skate spot in Brazil got destroyed, but somehow, with the passion and activism of the São Paulo skate community and local key actors, the city agreed to build the « Vale skateboarding memorial » ; a skatable monument, repurposing the existing granite stones and paying homage to the previous landscape and decades-long skateboarding history of the place.

Los Flanantes

Rafael Murolo is a skater and architect for the city of São Paulo. He contributed to the design of the new spot, combining urban planning and skate culture.

Murilo Romao, member of the @flanantes_ , played a key role in mobilizing the community to defend and preserve this iconic public space.

“You Have to Start Somewhere”

“You Have to Start Somewhere” is a set and retrospective by René Olivo, skateboarder, creative director and comedian from Milan, Italy. Known for blending strange thoughts, cultural contradictions, and raw truths, René brings a personal take on connections, aging as a skateboarder and skate culture – all tailor – made for Connect.

René Olivo – Chef Family

René Olivo is an iconic figure of Milan’s skate scene—a skater, creative director, comedian, and filmmaker. As a longtime member of the Chef Family collective, he has left his mark on Italian skate culture by producing cult videos and documentaries, such as “Youth of Yesterday” which traces the story of Gianluca Mariani and the Milanese skate scene.

For Festival Connect, he will perform a sketch true to his signature style, blending offbeat humor, cultural contradictions, and raw truth.

Tokyo tactical skaturbanism

Street skating in Tokyo has developed a very unique identity over the past decades. The urban public spaces interpreted by Tokyo’s skaters are closely linked to Japan’s urban planning system. Tokyo is full of POPS (Privately Owned Public Space) which offer exceptionally high-quality spaces and have become iconic skate spots. However, nearly all POPS (and other public spaces) are fully forbidden to skate, and are filled with no skateboarding signs or skate stoppers. How can this change for the better, and with which strategy ?

Kai Kagitani

Kai Kagitani (@kaihumano) is a skater and PhD anthropology student at Kyoto University. He has been examining the ecology of street emerged through skateboarding, mainly in Hiroshima, Japan. This involves exploring the entanglement between body, materials and environments in relation to social inclusion and exclusion.

His current PhD research further focuses on porosity and multiplicity of the body-space created by skaters in Barcelona. Kai is also the Operations Manager of TRAJECTORIA, an online journal published by the National Museum of Ethnology in Japan, which is situated at the intersection of anthropology, museums and art in terms of visual practice and representation.

Takahiro Yamazaki

Professor Takahiro Yamazaki @fukei_yama3 is a public space researcher and urban planning PhD at the University of Tokyo. These past few years, Takahiro and his team have been working on a new research that aims to clarify the current state of skate spots in Tokyo (they identified more than 250 skate spots) and explore the potential for transforming some of them into integrated skateable spaces through dialogue with managers.

Connect Village

Stands, Bar & Snacking

Exhibition Saturday Outdoor

Fred Mortagne

Lyon-based photographer and filmmaker Fred Mortagne developed his unique eye through skateboarding, which he has practiced since childhood. Starting out as a videographer in the 1990s for brands such as éS, Flip, and Cliché, he later turned to photography, cultivating a highly personal style: grainy black and white, geometric compositions, and bold plays of light and shadow.

His work goes beyond traditional sports photography, highlighting the elegance of movement and the dialogue between skaters and urban architecture. Inspired by masters like Cartier-Bresson and Lucien Hervé, he grounds his approach in a rigorous photographic tradition while anchoring it in action and lived urban experience.

For over a decade, his work has gained international recognition with exhibitions across the US, Europe, Australia, and Brazil, and he has received major awards including Red Bull Illume (2007) and the Pro Photographer Showdown (2017). In 2016, he published Attraper au Vol, reissued in 2024.

Fred also extends his practice to other art forms, including dance, theater, and classical music (Auditorium de Lyon, Ensemble Pygmalion, Opéra de Lyon, Théâtre du Châtelet). His career reflects the growing cultural recognition of skateboarding, from the streets to major stages.

Connect Party

Skate Session

Mellifera

Mellifera is a Bordeaux-based jazz association, created in 2021. Composed of around thirty female musicians from various musical backgrounds, the collective offers a dedicated space for practice, exchange, and the promotion of artists from the Gironde region.

As a true laboratory for experimentation, Mellifera aims to make jazz accessible and safe for female musicians while also serving as a springboard for their professionalization. The collective is also committed to raising public awareness about the role of women in jazz, gender issues related to instruments, and the existing musical heritage.

Mat Pilates for skateboarders

Boost Your Strength and Balance!

This Pilates Mat session is specially designed for skateboarders to strengthen key muscles, improve balance, and prevent injuries. You’ll work on your core, back, legs, and flexibility for better control, power, and posture on your board.

Pay what you want

Lauren Valls

Yoga teacher

Exhibition Sunday

Léo Sharp

Léo Sharp is a British photographer specializing in skateboarding, regarded as one of the UK’s most influential in the field. Former photo editor of Sidewalk magazine, he has been capturing the energy and creativity of the skate scene for over 20 years, with features in Thrasher, Kingpin, and Skateboarder.

For Connect Festival, he joins forces with Dr Kirsty Smith for an exhibition where their approaches complement each other : one through decades of capturing skate life across evolving cityscapes, the other through critical research and culture-based production.

Dr Kirsty Smith

Dr Kirsty Smith is a British photographer and researcher, specializing in fashion, extreme sports, and skate culture. Holding a PhD in Photography and teaching at Arts University Plymouth, she has collaborated with brands such as Nike, Adidas, Vans, and Vogue, and exhibited at international festivals.

For Connect Festival, she joins forces with Léo Sharp for an exhibition where their approaches complement each other : one through decades of capturing skate life across evolving cityscapes, the other through critical research and culture-based production.

Vanessa Udriot

Skater, architect, and artist from Lausanne, Switzerland, Vanessa Udriot will exhibit a new art installation at this year’s Connect festival. She will explore fluid, non-normative occupations of public space with a series of flags that transform borders into poetic maps of urban freedom. As a skaturbanist, and a skateable sculpture creator, she will share how skateboarding led her to study architecture, how architecture inspired her vision of skateboarding and how her artistic practice became a space of freedom and expression—much like skateboarding itself.

Vanessa is also the co-founder of the local association @lausanneskateboardclub, which has developed international inclusive programs for women, parent-child sessions, initiatives for immigrants and refugees (mainly unaccompanied minors and women), and international collaborations.

Iséki Nobuo

Born in Kochi, Japan in 1976. Started photography as a teenager, shooting his skater friends with disposable cameras. Began working as a photographer in 2000. Launched PANCAKE Skateboard Magazine in 2024. Continues to document skateboarding in Japan and abroad as a photographer and editor.

Soy Panday

Soy Panday is a French professional skateboarder, artist, and actor, best known for his contribution to skate culture from the 2000s to the present day. Born in Orléans in 1977, he first made a name for himself on the French skate scene in the 1990s, then internationally in the 2000s. In 2010, alongside Vivien and Jean Feil, he co-founded Magenta Skateboards, where he serves as Art Director.

His graphic art is poetically surreal, narrative, and positive, at times even shamanic. Always on the boundary between two worlds—dream and reality, night and day, yin and yang—Panday invites us to follow him into depths that are never dark, from which we can peacefully observe a parallel dimension : that of the spirit.

Beyond Magenta, for which he designs boards and apparel, he has collaborated with brands such as Adidas, Vans, and DC, producing shoes adorned with his artwork, as well as with artists including Mark Gonzales, Raphael Zarka, Benjamin Deberdt, Ocean Howell, and Brian Lotti.

Soy Panday lives and works in Paris.

Lome

Mountain High Valley Low

Yves Marchon, director, on the film:

“I’ve known Madars for over 20 years. We used to travel across Europe together filming skate videos—I was behind the camera, he was on the board. Those were golden years, and over time, we grew close.

But life took us down different paths, and we lost touch for nearly a decade. Then, out of the blue, he called me. He was coming to Switzerland and suggested we meet up. As we talked, images of him skating flashed through my mind—I could see him on his board against the stunning Swiss landscapes. It was like a film unfolding as he spoke, and that’s when the idea for this project began to take shape.

For most of my career, I’ve shot on 16mm film, but I’d never done a full-length project entirely on film—just bits and pieces. So this is my first film shot completely on film, and it’s deeply personal. I also wanted to tell a different kind of skateboarding story—one that shows the skater and the sport in a more humble, human light, far from the usual flashy, exaggerated portrayals.”

Madars Apse

Born in Ventspils, Latvia, in 1989, Madars Apse has been skateboarding and traveling the world since 2001. Dynamic, inventive, fast, and blessed with a fluid, natural style for his size, Madars progressed at an astonishing pace. While others with less innate talent plateaued, he kept pushing forward, ending every session sharper and more technical than he started.

A pro skater for Element since 2014, Madars was also sponsored by DC Shoes for 10 years, and has been a GoPro athlete since 2013 and a Red Bull athlete since 2006. In 2018, he won Thrasher’s King of the Road with Team Element and was twice named European Skater of the Year by KingPin Magazine.

Madars is the host of the hit Red Bull series “Skate Tales”, featuring icons like MTV’s Bam Margera, Thrasher’s Skater of the Year Wes Kremer, Richie Jackson, and more, filming across the U.S., Japan, Uganda, Brazil, Argentina, and beyond. Season 4 is currently in production.

He has released numerous video parts for Element Skateboards and hosted the show “It’s a Mad World,” with over 26 episodes. In 2023, he dropped two new video parts for Red Bull and OJ Wheels, along with an interview in Free Skate Mag and a feature in Jenkem Magazine.

Yves Marchon

Born in Fribourg, Switzerland, Yves Marchon has been filming skateboarding and documenting its surrounding culture for nearly 30 years.

He directed some of the most anticipated European skate films for Element Skateboards, including Rise Up (2005) and Get Busy Living (2010). In 2012, he wrote, filmed, and edited his first documentary, Second Nature, which won the Best Editing Award at the Los Angeles ISFF.

In 2013, his short documentary Spitsbergen 78°41’N – 16°24’E was nominated for Clip of the Year at the Bright European Skateboarding Awards in Berlin.

Today, Yves Marchon works as a freelance videographer and director based in Switzerland.

Build It And They Will Come

Julian Dykmans

Economic Crisis in the Skate Industry

Jim Thiebaud

HLC

Magenta

Riot

Trivia Skate Quizz

A Trivia for Skate nerds!

Are you able to recognize a handrail located on the other side of the planet only because you saw it in some obscure skate video? Do you automatically have Guy Mariano’s skating pop up in your head as you listen to the first notes of Herbie Hancock’s “Watermelon Man” ? Or maybe you’re able to name Mark Suciu’s last trick in Verso from memory? If so, you suffer from heavy skate-nerdery and this trivia will be your cure !

Spots, tricks, videos, music, photography : everything goes !

Hosted by La Lodge (Thibaut Carpentier), a blogger and passionate skateboarder who loves all those little details that form the collective imagination of skateboarders.

La Lodge AKA Thibault Carpentier

Exhibition Sunday Outdoor

Fred Mortagne

Lyon-based photographer and filmmaker Fred Mortagne developed his unique eye through skateboarding, which he has practiced since childhood. Starting out as a videographer in the 1990s for brands such as éS, Flip, and Cliché, he later turned to photography, cultivating a highly personal style: grainy black and white, geometric compositions, and bold plays of light and shadow.

His work goes beyond traditional sports photography, highlighting the elegance of movement and the dialogue between skaters and urban architecture. Inspired by masters like Cartier-Bresson and Lucien Hervé, he grounds his approach in a rigorous photographic tradition while anchoring it in action and lived urban experience.

For over a decade, his work has gained international recognition with exhibitions across the US, Europe, Australia, and Brazil, and he has received major awards including Red Bull Illume (2007) and the Pro Photographer Showdown (2017). In 2016, he published Attraper au Vol, reissued in 2024.

Fred also extends his practice to other art forms, including dance, theater, and classical music (Auditorium de Lyon, Ensemble Pygmalion, Opéra de Lyon, Théâtre du Châtelet). His career reflects the growing cultural recognition of skateboarding, from the streets to major stages.

Connect Village

Stands, Bar & Snacking

Guided Tour – Fred Mortagne Exhibition

Fred Mortagne

Lyon-based photographer and filmmaker Fred Mortagne developed his unique eye through skateboarding, which he has practiced since childhood. Starting out as a videographer in the 1990s for brands such as éS, Flip, and Cliché, he later turned to photography, cultivating a highly personal style: grainy black and white, geometric compositions, and bold plays of light and shadow.

His work goes beyond traditional sports photography, highlighting the elegance of movement and the dialogue between skaters and urban architecture. Inspired by masters like Cartier-Bresson and Lucien Hervé, he grounds his approach in a rigorous photographic tradition while anchoring it in action and lived urban experience.

For over a decade, his work has gained international recognition with exhibitions across the US, Europe, Australia, and Brazil, and he has received major awards including Red Bull Illume (2007) and the Pro Photographer Showdown (2017). In 2016, he published Attraper au Vol, reissued in 2024.

Fred also extends his practice to other art forms, including dance, theater, and classical music (Auditorium de Lyon, Ensemble Pygmalion, Opéra de Lyon, Théâtre du Châtelet). His career reflects the growing cultural recognition of skateboarding, from the streets to major stages.

Closing DJ set

DJ Gramboy

Freestyle Battle Japan x Brazil

Guided Visit : Skaturbanism in Bordeaux

Leo Valls