theLAB at NASS 2013

The line-up this year was interesting, with a big mix of different genres and not as many stages, which I think was not such a good thing for the festival. Nevertheless, the sun was out and all the people that were there were all up for a good time and ready to party. The site seemed bare this year, but I’m not sure if that was because there was no dirt track and no scooter arena, but everything was very spread out this year. The main stage, right at the top of the site, was better for all the people camping in Green and Purple camping but didn’t seem to have much use when it came to attracting people down to the village shop or any of the stalls at the bottom of the site.

This year was the first year that they had no dirt track and that was a great shame, because it felt like something was missing. But hopefully we will see it again in the near future.
When walking through the site there was so much going on and some many things to do and watch, with the amazing animal team track which incorporated vans that the whole course packed into, it was quite impressive. There was also a nerf container on site promoting the new guns that they have coming to the UK in October. If you were ever feeling peckish, there was never a food stall too far away. The NASS shopping village was full of stalls selling all sorts of stuff from clothing to parts for all your action sport’s needs; one stall called The Lab even had a guy in a phallus shaped costume as a marketing ploy, which attracted a lot of attention within the village and also around the NASS Site.

NASS 2013 had all the usual festival fairground rides for everybody to enjoy, and also lots of new interesting tents… one was the Shisha tent which had lots of good acts doing acoustic sets with their own songs as well as some brilliantly reconstructed covers, so that people could sing along whilst passing a shisha or hookah pipe around within their group to smoke flavoured tobacco and just chill and enjoy the music. The tent opposite the Shisha tent had bathtub that people could fill up and soak their feet in during the day and dried out at night, so you could put pillows and blankets in and have a lil’ nap in whilst enjoying the evening DJ… a very relaxing feel inside if you wanted to escape all the hype of the main stage.

The main stage was mainly full of people just getting some shade and escaping the heat of the midday sun, but for the hard core festival goers, opposite the main stage tent was the rave area where they had a DJ on a platform blasting out some of the biggest drum n bass, dubstep and dance tunes around. The little stage area was always full of people dancing like no one was watching all day and all night long. It was amazing just to watch even if you didn’t feel like getting up and dancing yourself. If you wanna party like there is no tomorrow then The Warehouse was the place to be, with DJ/MC workshops during the day and DJ’s hitting the beats hard right through to the early hours of the morning.

If you wanted to have a rest from all the hustle and bustle of the festival life and wanted to see some real talent at work, The Pro Park was the place to be, with competitions in skate, BMX and Skateboarding going on throughout the whole day. It was definitely a place to escape from the sun and give your eyes a treat. The Pro Park was full with some of the best of the best professionals within the action sports world wandering around and enjoying the atmosphere as much as the public.

The main stage had a real run up of artists on the bill for the weekend with the likes of Katy B, Nas and Radio 1’s Zane Lowe to name just a few of the big names, with lots of smaller acts before them deserving bigger crowds. The atmosphere within the main stage tent was awesome with good sound and crowds of people flocking in to see some of their favourite acts. Some lesser known acts got some good reception from all the people escaping the sun.

NASS Festival is all about having a good time, having a laugh, enjoying the music and action sports… then when not doing that taking part on the public course where you can just go and take your choice of transport and enjoy the course with friends, and when the day is done, party hard right through the night and wake up late, have a bite to eat and get on with the events of the next day.
This festival is definitely for you if you love music, sports, are a night owl, don’t do early mornings and want to have an awesome weekend… then this is the festival for you.

Article by Jaz Wilson