Change Fest returns to Tupelo this weekend for three days of skateboarding, music, art
Aug. 31—TUPELO — Change isn't coming to Tupelo, it's here. Again.
Change Fest — the city's annual celebration of street music, outsider art and skateboarding culture — returns for the second time tonight. With three days of events planned, the festival is expected to bring thousands of people to the area to enjoy live music, urban art and skateboarding in the middle of downtown Tupelo.
For Matt Robinson, who founded the event, the festival is both a celebration of what he described as skateboarding's organic, do-it-yourself culture and how far it's come since he was a kid.
There was a time when shredding through the streets of downtown Tupelo — just like dozens, possibly hundreds, of people will do this weekend — would have put him on the wrong side of the law.
"It's funny. The only times I've ever been to jail was for riding a skateboard somewhere I wasn't supposed to in Tupelo," Robinson said.
But that sea change didn't come easily. It required fistfuls of the rebellious attitude and innate inclusiveness built in to skateboarding culture.
"They weren't given a tennis court or a basketball stadium to grow in, so they grew on the streets," Robinson said of skateboarders. "They formed organically just by people getting together. So, for those things to now be recognized as being worthy of being celebrated, it feels good."
Robinson himself played a pivotal role in generating that support. He spearheaded plans to build the city's first skatepark, located in bustling Ballard Park, and led the recent successful efforts to have that park upgraded to the professional level, opening the city to the possibility of hosting national skateboarding competitions.
And for years, Robinson has used his Cliff Gookin-based skate shop to highlight kinds of art he feels often get overlooked — street painting, tattooing, punk rock, hip hop, metal — and opened his doors to groups of people who haven't necessarily always felt like they belong.
"What we do at Change Fest on a large scale is what we do all the time at Change on a smaller scale," Robinson said.
Landing a 180
Last year's inaugural Change Fest surpassed expectations, which has made planning for this weekend's event both easier and, in some ways, more challenging.
"When you're dealing with artists and skateboarders, it's kind of like nailing Jell-O to the wall," Robinson said. "Last year, I had about three months to do the whole thing; this year, I had a year, but I don't know if I used the year the best way possible. I guess time will tell that."
One thing that has been easier, Robinson said, is convincing professional skateboarders, who often keep busy schedules in far away destinations, to attend.
"People who came here last year went back and told everybody in their companies and in their social circles how great Tupelo is," Robinson said.
Funding for last year's festival came from wherever Robinson and a dedicated group of volunteers could scrounge it up. That included Robinson's own pockets.
Fitting then, given the festival's name, that things are different this year. Besides continued backing from the Tupelo CVB, this year's corporate sponsors include giants among the skateboarding community — Vans and Red Bull.
"They know about Tupelo, and they've heard from their riders that this is a special community," Robinson said.
Part of what Robinson believes makes Tupelo special is that, below its surface, the city and its people share a perspective with skateboarding culture.
Robinson paraphrased George McLean, founder of the CREATE Foundation and the Daily Journal, when making his point:
"Nobody is going to do it for us; we have to do it ourselves," he said. "If something doesn't exist, we can't just sit around and complain that it doesn't exist. We have to go create it."
It's what skaters have been doing for generations. When there was no place to skate, they used city streets; with no canvas for their artwork, they used the sides of buildings; when they were told their music was too loud, they created their own venues.
For someone like Robinson, who remembers these moments in vivid details, the acceptance of skateboarding culture and the growth of Change Fest is beautiful and extraordinary.
"Those things were forged in fire," he said. "I want to pass those things along so that the next generation is just kind to their neighbors and has respect for people who are not like them."
That, he said, is what Change is all about.
"I'm not an artist or a musician, but skateboarding exposed me to both of those things," Robinson said. "It has enriched my life so much that I want my neighbors to be exposed to art and music and to get to have those experiences."
