The first weekend in June will find Austin at the center of the extreme sports world as the Summer X Games return for their second year in our fair city. Featuring competitions in skateboarding, BMX bike events, and motorcycle and rally car racing, the X games will once again draw big crowds to the Circuit of The Americas racetrack just southeast of the Austin-Bergstrom Airport.
The X Games were created in 1995 to capitalize on the growing interest among Gen-Xers in action sports that were not part of more traditional competitions such as the Olympics. The initial version, which concentrated on warm weather events, was joined by a winter version in 1997. Since then, a Global X Games circuit has been established, with annual competitions at various spots around the world.
Though they were originally seen as outsider events that weren’t taken seriously by fans of established sports, the daring and charismatic performances by standouts such as Tony Hawk, Travis Pastrana and Shawn White were broadcast by ESPN to millions of viewers. The resulting attention and ratings helped earn the X Games enough attention and respect that some of its events, especially winter ones such as snowboarding and aerial skiing, have been adopted as official Olympic events.
Over the year, the Summer X Games have been staged in various American cities, including Newport, Rhode Island, San Diego, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Los Angeles. 2015 marks the second of four years that the competition will be held in Austin. The weekend will kick off on Thursday, June 4 with the Moto X Step Up final, which will be held downtown on Congress Avenue; otherwise, the rest of the games will be at COTA.
Friday and Saturday’s competitions run from late morning until the evening, while Sunday’s events close in the late afternoon. All three days will feature ongoing live music performances, including major headlining sets by Nicki Minaj on Friday and Metallica on Saturday. The weekend wraps up with a performance by Glitch Mob on Sunday night.
If you want to check out the action, tickets, including both single day admissions and three-day passes, are still available. Visit http://circuitoftheamericas.com/xgamesaustin/tickets for more information.
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