Support for this coming weekend’s New Zealand Allstars action sports festival at Mount Maunganui’s ASB Bay Park stadium has come from all sides with industry leaders predicting a bright future for the X Games-style FMX/BMX/Skate and Scooter event.

The festival is being run in conjunction with the third round of the 2013/14 Cody’s D1NZ National Drifting Championship and the current points leader of that series, former Freestyle BMX and FMX rider ‘Mad Mike’ Whiddett, reckons it is a ‘perfect fit.’

“It’s going to be massive. To have all the different action sports together at the same event? Awesome. My own background is in BMX and FMX and a lot of the other Drift guys are ex-motocross. The fan demographics are also very similar so you’re going to get drift fans checking out FMX and Freestyle BMX, kids on skateboards and scooters seeing Drifting up close for the first time. It’s going to be mega.”

Individual sector organizers Steven McHardy (BMX) and Simon Thorp (Skate) agree, saying that New Zealand has been without a single ‘unifying’ action sports event since the demise of the Hamilton then Wellington-based Vodafone X-Air.

“Is is a good thing? Without a doubt,” says McHardy, an Aucklander who has been involved in BMX as a competitor, judge and now event organiser for the past 15 years. “With the amount of talent we have got in the country at the moment the BMX industry has been screaming out for an event like this.”

Other events – namely the Frew Brothers’ annual ‘Farm Jam’ near Winton in the Deep South – have gone some way to fill the gap since the last Vodafone X-Air event. But Farm Jam is an outdoor FMX and Freestyle BMX-only affair.

“Each group,” says McHardy, “has its own little events but up until now there’s been nothing where the various genres get together in one place. Now, to combine all three key events along with the motorsport equivalent, Drifting, nothing’s come close. There’s going to be a lot of crossover and potentially a lot of new fans for each different discipline.”

Cody’s D1NZ National Drifting Championship CEO Brendon White says he has been thinking about putting such an event like New Zealand Allstars together for a number of years but it was the success of the inaugural Bay of Plenty round of the Cody’s Drift series at the ASB Baypark venue (the weekend crowd figure was 7500, a Cody’s D1NZ record) last year that gave him the impetus to turn dream into reality.

“The thinking,” says White,” was that, ‘it’s such a great multi-discipline venue it deserves a great multi-discipline event.'”

Coincidentally, after having been put into storage for a number of years, the skate ramps originally built for the Vodafone X-Air event were recently bought and relocated to the Bay of Plenty by indoor skate park owner Kel Travers. It is those ramps which will be installed in the ASB Baypark arena.

As well as the cream of the country’s Drifting talent – which includes ‘Mad Mike’ Whiddett in his Red Bull/Speedhunters-backed Mazda RX7, defending series champion ‘Fanga Dan’ Woolhouse from Whangarei (Castrol Edge Holden Commodore), and local hero Cole Armstrong (V Energy Nissan Skyline R34) the New Zealand All Stars event has attracted an impressive line-up of action sports talent from the other genres.

Another Red Bull-backed Kiwi international, Nick Franklin, will go head-to-head with fellow Kiwis Mitch McHardy and Luke Smith and top Australia’s Metal Mulisha-backed Truman Carroll on the Metal Mulisha NZ Allstars FMX competition presented by Adens Tyres outside, with up to 10 Pro-Am riders also going head to head in a competition by the riders for the riders.

Inside the stadium Freestyle BMX riders to look out New Zealand Allstars Freestyle BMX competition presented by BMX.co.nz include Red Bull-backed 18-year-old Jaden Leeming from Auckland, International Premium team rider Josh De Reus from Cambridge and Colony BMX rider Liam Marshall .

Skateboarders to keep an eye on, meanwhile, include local pros Dan Gemmell (Element) and Umberto Skinner (Boom Skateboards), former national champion Rueben Baker (Eshe Skateboards) and members of the SOUF skate team.

In keeping with the theme of action sport competition stunt rider Nic Kroeze will entertain fans between Drift and FMX sessions outside while inside the Element Skate team will be doing a demo at midday on the Sunday while Red Bull Thre3style champ DJ Scizzorhands will host the inaugural New Zealand Allstars Iron Finger scratch battle presented by Defy Club and Epik Eyewear with eight of New Zealand’s top DJs all competing.

Tickets for the event are available from iticket (http://www.iticket.co.nz/events/2014/jan/the-codys-d1nz-national-drifting-championship-round-3) with prices starting at $20 per person on Saturday and $30 per person on Sunday.

An early sign of how big the event could be is that pit passes have already sold out with VIP passes expected to follow suit before the weekend.

For more information go to www.d1nz.com or the d1nz facebook page.