When you approach the venerable Olympic site early in the morning via the Walther-Bathe-Weg, the park is still peaceful. A few tourists stroll to BMW World to admire highly polished and hardly affordable cars. Joggers and cyclists use the cool morning air for a few laps through the listed ensemble. And the lake dozes off glittering in the sun. There is still nothing to suggest that thousands of people will soon be celebrating a huge festival here, there is still screwing and sawing everywhere, details are literally being filed: From Friday evening to Sunday evening there will be Munich Mash again in the Olympic Park.
Since 2014, the world’s best action sports athletes have been coming together on the last weekend in June, and since then this big scene happening has been attracting crowds to the Olympic Park. Last year, after the two-year Corona break, 70,000 visitors came, this year more are expected.
A special feature is that “we are constantly developing,” explains Frank Seipp, who heads the organization team together with Markus Schnetzer. What the organizing Olympiapark München GmbH (OMG) is practically forced to do “because the sports are constantly evolving”. And the organizer is now taking account of a particularly dynamic development in trend sports: For the first time, street dance is an official part of the program alongside wakeboarding, skateboarding and BMX. “We’ve always dreamed of becoming really big,” says Seipp. In addition to economic considerations, “our aspirations” stood in the way: And that envisages the absolute world elite – and they now also have them in street dance at the start.
Last year, the dancers in the Theatron am See were still part of the accompanying show program, but when the organizers noticed how much enthusiasm and interest the dance competitions “full to the brim” (Seipp) aroused until late at night, they quickly realized that “that was something for the main programme”, says Seipp. The fact that breakdancing will be an Olympic discipline for the first time at the 2024 Games in Paris did not prevent this decision. Incidentally, breakdancing is “wrong,” says Serhat Perhat, stage name Said, with a smile: “It’s called breaking, and we’re not dancers either, we’re b-boys and b-girls.” They will compete in the disciplines International Breaking 2vs2 mixed and the International All Style 7-to-smoke.
Three of the four sports shown at the Mash are now Olympic
In the 2vs2 contest, two teams of two “battle” each other, i.e. dance against each other, in order to progress one round. In the 7-to-smoke, the dancers face each other, one steps into the middle and shows what he can do. Points are collected and whoever gets seven first wins. And it quickly becomes clear what the hip-hop scene is capable of when Said gives an interview in a headstand position, bending his body in such a way that one doubts whether the 26-year-old has a conventional endoskeleton. For his sport, events like Mash mean “the opportunity to put Munich on the map for breaking,” explains the native of Munich: “I can compete with the best in my city, otherwise I have to travel around the world for that.”
Looking forward to meeting “many top people from different sports”: BMX rider Tobias Freigang:
(Photo: Catherine Hess/Catherina Hess)
Skateboarding and BMX Freestyle have had Olympic status since the Tokyo 2021 Games and are part of the Mash program. There is also an innovation here, the OMG has built a bowl for the competitions, a platform with jumps and ramps in the shape of a huge bowl, in front of the lawn steps next to the Theatron in the lake. The field of participants is exquisite as always, athletes like Alisa Fessl are in top form, as the Austrian says with a smile: “I’ve just come from the Olympic qualification in Argentina, looks pretty good.” In Munich she wants to be on the podium, things are looking good there too, but the focus is on having fun. What Tobias Freigang confirms, the German BMX rider wants to “play at the front”, but Mash is special because “you meet so many top people from different sports here”. And: “Because there is no entrance fee, it’s unique.”
Former wakeboard world champion Domink Gührs is looking forward to competing in his hometown of Munich after having to retire last year.
(Photo: Catherine Hess/Catherina Hess)
The setup of the wakeboarders is also unique, says Dominik Gührs. The former world champion had to pass last year, the only time he had agreed to a film project in Iceland. All the greater is the joy “to be back at the start in my hometown”. On Thursday he saw the course for the first time, it was “powerful” what the organizer had built in the lower Olympic lake. Once he was second, is victory due now? “It’s hard to say,” grins the 33-year-old, a lot has happened.
This also applies to the Mash Fest, as Markus Schnetzer explains. Compared to the previous year, there were significantly more exhibitors, many had hesitated after Corona, some did not survive the crisis. The idea of organizing a festival with culture, events and food for the European Championships last summer was “considered grandiose,” says Schnetzer: “It’s been at the Mash for ten years.”