FEST Sessions Polska

Szymon Godziek and Marcin Rot have been a part of the Fest Series crew for some time now and dreamed of contributing their own version of these For Riders, By Riders events. With the help of adidas Five Ten, NS Bikes and Red Bull, they could finally invite the travelling big-air mob to Poland. The beginning of June marked the "send it" ceremony with a course built on the sleepy hills of Kudowa-Zdrój, Poland. Marcin Rot, Aloise D'adamo and Szymon Godziek, with the help of locals, spent over three weeks in the excavators to make it happen!

"I am thrilled I can finally host the crew here! It has been a dream to sesh this course with my friends and get together after the strange COVID times. Big up to the digging crew who has done an amazing job and our local heroes for helping me out with organizing the gig." - Szymon Godziek

What could beat a week-long session with your mates hanging out in the woods with bikes? That is precisely the aim of Fest Sessions Polska; to ride as much as possible on an insane course with four distinct lines. Poland greeted us with hospitality, great food, and a massive playground. It was refreshing to share the track with some of the most remarkable female riders on the planet! With Vero Sandler, CJ Selig, Vinny Armstrong, Gemma Corbera, Robin Goomes and Chelsea Kimball all making an effort to come out, we were more than stacked with talent and steeze! Robin throwing down tricks while Vinny sneezing each gap was a blessing to see - just watch the clip already!

As for the usual suspects, we enjoyed the speed and dedication of Nico Vink, Red Belge, Marcin Rot & Alois D'adamo on double duty building the course and sending laps until sunset. On the other hand, Sam Hodgson went bananas on the big line, flipping the significant step-down hip. At the same time, Max Kruse and Clemens Kaudela simply blasted laps on the course. Did the women miss the big line? Hell no!

For steeze, we enjoyed watching the crew cruise the warm-up lines with tons of transfers and a mega hip! Lukas Schafer, the Ruso Bros, Raoul Schneeberger, Eliott Lapotre, William Roberts, Nicholi Rogatkin, Dawid Godziek, Reed Boggs, Manuel Simion, Jan Perse or the "fresh face in MTB," and Sergio Layos went all out on this one. Hodgy even attempted a tail whip over the tree, and while he didn't pull it the effort alone blew our minds!

Due to wind conditions, riders needed to take advantage of early morning and late evening sessions, highlighting how dedicated Fest people are. Whether you are cooking for the wolf pack, filming, shooting the sesh, shuttling the crew or organizing everything at HQ, you clock in whenever the riders tell you they are ready to send. Most of us have been to important events worldwide, but it still mesmerizes us. You can only host sessions like this if you connect people with the right passion from many fields. We were so lucky to find these people in Poland and can only extend the most massive thank you ever!

Big up to the heroes behind the stage: Szymon Godziek and CJ Selig for putting the event together, Marcin Rot, Aloise D'adamo and local shovel wizards Szymon Wojciechowski and Kacper Maszczak, Adam Glosowic and Nikola Baron for keeping us in one piece and organizing literally everything when needed, our beautiful hosts at Apartamenty Miranda , our shuttle boss Tomek Krzemiński and the whole media crew behind this project. For the film crew: Ryszard Syryczynski, Aleksander Osmałek, Mateusz Rathe, FPV: Cine Ghost Kacper Spławiński, and still photography by Bartek Woliński, Hanna Retz, Fraser Britton, Heloise Lamberti and Mateusz Szachowski.