Inside Zika Farms: Baltimore's Underground Club & Skate Park

in #skateboarding2 years ago

This is just a little bit of compositing and effects editing
I did with some footage from a part in July.

I have some more from this past weekend of a punk rock show we did there, but I haven't messed with the footage yet.

A good friend of mine and his crew founded Zika Farms a couple years back.
It's a utility access road hidden in the woods in part of Baltimore City.
The main purpose of it is a skate park for skateboarding, and they've invested
significant time and money into it. They started off hand-pouring concrete
embankments sort of like partial swimming pools.
This is how skateboarding evolved in the late 70's in California because of a drought
there were empty pools, and former surfers began to utilize the concrete like waves.

There's even an 8 foot quarter pipe:

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The Namesake Zika Farms is a reference to mosquitoes.

A lot of us are graffiti artists, and one of the better painters did this mosquitoe illustration. I love it:

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As a means of funding the venture they hold large parties and concerts in the summer on the weekend.
There's lighting, portable-toilets, a Tiki-bar made out of pallets, and of course live music.
All powered by two generators.

It's an interesting look into the underground scene of what's considered one of the worst cities in the country.
And it's hidden in a pretty sketchy place where people would normally never wander to.
It's hidden down what looks like a dirt road into the woods under the elevated highways:

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To some it might seem trashy, but to us it's kind of a magical place.