20 June 2025

Riverside Jam - Urban sports weekend at Riverside Museum 21 and 22 June

A person riding a skateboard across a concrete rail while another person performs a jump on a BMX bike. They are both on a large paved area next to a river on a clear day

The Riverside Museum is hosting a free festival this weekend to encourage children to try urban sports.

The Riverside Jam: Urban Sports Weekend will take place on Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 June at the Riverside Skate Spot. The event features BMX and skateboarding sessions for beginners, freestyle competitions involving expert riders, DJs, street food and chances to win a range of prizes, including four brand-new BMXs donated by Scottish Cycling.

Riverside Jam is organised by the Riverside Museum in partnership with The Loading Bay, Glasgow Urban Sports and re:ply Skateboards.

The event organisers will supply all the equipment needed so youngsters can try out and enjoy urban sports, with boards, bikes, helmets and pads provided.

The 2025 Riverside Jam is the second instalment of the event. The first Riverside Jam event was held at the official opening of the Riverside Museum’s Skate Spot in October 2024. It was so popular, the museum was asked to create an annual event.

This year’s Riverside Jam will offer festivalgoers a chance to get involved in come-and-try BMX and skateboarding classes from 11am to 3pm on both days. The sessions are led by The Loading Bay and best suited for age eight and above, but children aged five and older are more than welcome. The lessons involve full-sized skateboards, with smaller ramps and bikes available for all abilities and sizes.

From 3pm to 7.30pm on Saturday, when Riverside Museum will mark its 14th anniversary since opening, some of the best skateboarders and BMXers in the country will battle it out during a series of competitions.

Due to the forecasted weather, the competitions will now only take place on Saturday.

A skate jam event on the Skate Spot spine will run from 3-4pm before an hour-long BMX jam kicks off at 4pm. Two more skate jams will then be held on the hip (5.30-6pm) and quarter pipe sections (6-6.30pm).

Stars of Scotland’s BMX scene such as Kriss Kyle, Alex Donnachie and Sean Munro will face off in a Red Bull high air contest and compete for a cash prize from 7-7.30pm.

The first day of the festival will also feature a free Go Skate talk at noon, when artists Raydale Dower and Toby Paterson will share insights into the Skate Spot’s design evolution, discuss the role skateboarding and BMX play in Glasgow’s culture and share plans for another ambitious project led by Glasgow Urban Sports: Devon Street Urban Park.

In the lead-up to the Riverside Jam, Riverside Museum’s Skate Spot also held BMX and skateboarding workshops for Glasgow schools, run by The Loading Bay. The Loading Bay sessions give school pupils a chance to try skateboarding and BMXing under the safe supervision of the team which opened Glasgow’s first indoor skatepark.

The school workshops at the Skate Spot are supported by the Wheels in Motion Fund, which has awarded £150,000 of grants to 23 organisations across Glasgow to roll out new ideas which encourage people to become more physically active by getting on a bike, skateboarding, rollerskating or scootering.