Some of the best skaters in the world are in Long Beach this week, taking on a series of intense, brightly colored rails, ramps and jumps. If they can’t master the obstacle, they risk ending up in the water at the bottom of a dirt pit that once housed old City Hall at the heart of downtown.
This is KASSO Fest, the first event the popular TV show has hosted outside of Japan. Judging by the crowds and the millions of views the show racks up on YouTube, there’s an audience for it.
Long Beach beat out Santa Monica, Venice Beach and downtown Los Angeles to host the festival. The giant dirt hole surrounded by urban skyline “was unlike anything we had seen before—strange in the best way,” KASSO producer Yohei Yasunaga said. “Almost no flat ground. Uneven levels. Foundations of old buildings still visible. Grass growing wildly everywhere. And yet … something about it pulled us in.”…