Located in the sleepy town of Shepton Mallet near Bristol, NASS FESTIVAL (aka NASS) is a four-day extravaganza that brings together the vibrant world of street culture. This one-of-a-kind event showcases the perfect blend of music, skateboarding, BMX, and mind-blowing street art, leaving attendees with unforgettable experiences.
The festival spans four action-packed days, allowing attendees to fully embrace the atmosphere. In 2023, NASS boasts an impressive lineup of headline acts, including renowned artists such as Chase & Status, Wu Tang Clan, and Little Simz.
Over the course of the festival, you can revel in over 150 hours of live music, delivered across six incredible stages. From pulsating beats to soul-stirring melodies, NASS offers a diverse range of musical genres, ensuring there's something for everyone.
Year after year, fans eagerly anticipate the arrival of their musical heroes, coming together in a celebration of unity and passion. The atmosphere is electric, as like-minded individuals from across the UK gather to revel in the shared experience of this legendary event.
I said at the start that NASS is more than a music festival, it also showcases the very best of street culture where skateboarders and BMX riders push the boundaries of their craft, executing jaw-dropping tricks that leave spectators breathless. I used to be quite a hit in the early 80’s with my BMX skills which included eye-popping stunts including ‘endos’, ‘backhops’ and ‘kick turns’ which had the ladies wanting me and the kids wanting to be me, it was a tough gig but someone had to do it!
The festival also serves as a canvas for street artists to unleash their multi-coloured creativity via a well handled can of spray paint, transforming the festival grounds into an urban art gallery that captivates the imagination.
It was late morning on the Saturday when my ‘fun bus’ pulled into the blue parking zone, I gathered my gear and headed off to the box office to collect my passes and wristbands before meeting up with my photographer who had arrived on the Friday to capture some of the acts on the main stage. After a walk round the site, I finally found the press hut and headed off to get some photos as day two was starting to hot up.
There were plenty of graffiti artists who were busy spraying their art onto the blank walls that had been prepared for them in one area, the smell of aerosol paint coupled with the excitement from the onlookers made for a great atmosphere. I chatted to a couple of writers who had come down from London for the weekend and said that they have covering NASS for a few years.
I found the half pipe which was full of skateboarders, all competing for as a spot in Sunday’s grand finale, this saw skaters from all over the place flocking to NASS to exhibit their skills and knocking out some crazy tricks which kept the spectators on the edge of their seats.
Looking at the festival guide, there were SO many acts, TOO many acts to cover so I’ll give nods to those that I saw over the weekend.
I was invited to chat to BIIG PIIG (Jessica Smyth) who had just performed on the main stage, she used to live in Los Angeles and has recently moved back to London so it was good to catch up with her and find out about life in the States and more information on her festivals taking place later this year. I was also asked to chat with a great act called EASY LIFE who I had rubbed shoulders with briefly at Boardmasters Festival last year. We chatted about NASS, their top three festival survival tips (which were very sensible, sun-screen, water, wet wipes etc).
After some more walking around the site, I happened upon a fabulous clothing store called ‘Violet’s Collection’ which had an immense choice of hoodies, bucket hats and other festival ‘essentials’ on offer. After chatting to one of the people running the store, I selected a couple of ‘Prime’ bucket hats for my nephew to keep him happy….
I managed to catch 20 minutes of Anne Marie’s set on the main stage which looked great, she appeared solo and completely owned the crowd who had amassed to see her in action.
Seeing as 2023 is the 50th year since HIP HOP was ‘invented’ (do you invent a movement??) anyway, it was back in 1973 that the Hip Hop scene kicked off in New York City and to celebrate this, none other than the WU-TANG CLAN were onsite and ready to kick things into orbit during their set. They took to the stage in various colours and proceeded to wow the audience with a great spread of material from their varied back catalogue including a tribute to the late O.D.B. (Ol’ Dirty Bastard) who passed in 2004 owing to a few of life’s excesses….
Despite it being late (for me), I decided to take a wander over to the Southbank warehouse where HEDEX and Eksman had just kicked off their set. The place was rocking and I mean ROCKING, it was flooded with high powered LED’s from the stage and it was a great view of what was pretty much silhouettes of the ravers amongst this uber-white backdrop. I lasted about 15 minutes until the extreme output of the subs started rattlng my fillings so I thought it best to leave and let someone else take my place. The queue outside the venue was round the block and I hope that everyone managed to get in there and sample what was on offer!
Sunday morning was a chilled affair, after finding out that the site didn’t open until 10am, I kicked back in the van for an hour, managing to finish off the WHAM! documentary on Netflix (well worth a watch kids!) Once I was in, I climbed inside the half pipe where I found a couple of skaters having a practise and shot a few pics for them before the press office opened.
Sunday for me was a short day, owing to a family celebration, I had to leave at 2pm but this didn’t stop me arranging a chat with West London drum n’ bass artist JOE UNKNOWN, we found a seat inside the artist catering tent which was awash with cakes of every shape and form, it was tough to keep our grubby mitts off them but will power prevailed and we left without any sins added to our calorie intake!
As the half pipe kicked off in the early afternoon, I had to pack and leave, I felt like a contender on a 1980’s gameshow, leaving early as I’d been knocked out in the early rounds. This was hard to stomach as there were LOADS of people pouring in as I left so I did feel sad but it was nice to get away from the bone rattling bass that had given my innards a good kicking over the last 36 hours!
My photographer arrived a little later on Sunday and captured some great shots of RACHEL CHINOURIRI, VENBEE and KOJEY RADICAL before he too had to leave in order to decamp ready for another week of work in the ‘real world’….
Until 2023, I was a NASS virgin, would I return?, hell yeah!, whilst it wasn’t really my scene musically, there is SO much more at NASS to enjoy, I could have spent all day walking around taking photos of people dressed in their colourful costumes and the various stalls but as time was of the essence, I had to give it up and return to civilisation! See you next year!
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Words - Steve Muscutt
Pics - (all ©) Andrew Hobbs Photography
