NASS Festival

NASS was the weekend of music and street sport at the Bath and West Showground, in Shepton Mallet, Somerset. The BBC writes Mallet. IQ Magazine writes Mallett. The two spellings stay side by side. Vision Nine operated it. Superstruct bought a stake the year before the last one. It used to gather about 30,000 people. The 2023 one, 6 to 9 July, sold out. On 1 November 2023 the team wrote on Facebook that there would be no NASS in 2024: the cost of living and the jump in operating costs made it unfeasible, despite the effort. They call themselves privileged that so many people came to dance, many for the first time at a festival. Music Business Worldwide lists it among those that announced they would not return. The BBC asked whether there would be a return in 2025. The note we have does not print the answer.

The visit that was heard is Steve Muscutt's, on 10 July 2023. He arrives Saturday late morning on a bus, at the blue car park, picks up passes and wristbands and looks for the press hut. His photographer had come in on Friday. He says it was his first time. On Sunday, in the van, he finishes the WHAM documentary on Netflix before they open. On a blank wall, the smell of aerosol mixes with the people watching. People from London spray paint and say they have been covering NASS for a few years. The half pipe is full of skaters competing for a spot in Sunday's final. He looks at the guide and says there are too many names to see them all. He talks to Biig Piig, Jessica Smyth, just down from the main stage: she lived in Los Angeles and has just moved back to London. Easy Life gives him three tips: sunscreen, water and wet wipes. At Violet's Collection he buys two bucket hats.

He catches twenty minutes of Anne-Marie on the main stage. She comes on alone and holds the crowd. There is no song. Wu-Tang Clan come up in clothes of several colours. Muscutt ties the set to the fifty years since 1973, when hip hop starts in New York, and to a tribute to Ol' Dirty Bastard, who died in 2004. He notes no title. Graham Tarrant's February preview says that on Saturday they mark thirty years of Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) and names Protect Ya Neck and C.R.E.A.M. That is the list they were ready to play, not the visit. The same preview puts Chase & Status Live on Friday, with Blind Faith, End Credits and Mixed Emotions. Muscutt does not walk that Friday.

At night he goes into the Southbank warehouse. HEDEX and Eksman have just started. White LEDs, silhouettes, and the subs rattle his fillings. He lasts about fifteen minutes. The queue goes round the block. On Sunday the site opens at 10 am. He stays an hour in the van. Inside the half pipe, two skaters practise. He talks to Joe Unknown, drum and bass from west London, in the artist catering tent, full of cakes, and they try none. At 2 pm he leaves, for a family party, as the afternoon half pipe starts and more people come in. He does not hear Little Simz. The photographer, later, shoots Rachel Chinouriri, Venbee and Kojey Radical. There are no songs from those three either.

Stereoboard counts seven stages. Muscutt writes six and more than 150 hours of music. The two counts stay side by side. The preview puts Little Simz on Sunday, with Sometimes I Might Be Introvert and No Thank You. That is the record the preview announces, not a walked close. The local Shepton Mallet listing speaks of skate, BMX, inline and FMX, and of a £60,000 purse in the BMX. That is the announcement, not the final's record. IQ Magazine describes it as the professional festival in the United Kingdom that joins action sport and music. WORDPLAY, on 19 July, publishes photos by Kate Vice and Lieu of those four days and names the Ring of Fuego, presented by Takis, with no rider. Muscutt writes that the bass gave his insides a beating for about 36 hours. The photographer leaves afterwards to go back to the week's work. The statement says the decision was not made lightly. John Rostron, of the Association of Independent Festivals, calls NASS a door for young people and says the cancellation weighs on the whole sector: covid, the cost of living and the supply chain leave many with no way but to close.

What remains of that Saturday is the half pipe, Anne-Marie alone for twenty minutes and the tribute to Ol' Dirty Bastard with no title in the note. The warehouse still had the queue in the street. The field did not open again.