SOMERVILLE, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — People from all over the world are in Massachusetts for the annual parkour festival, where they're dashing, jumping, crawling and diving through the area under Lechmere Station.
It's all part of the three-day American Rendezous, a massive parkour festival put on by Somerville's Parkour Generation America. It celebrates its 13th anniversary this year.
"There's a big community but it's also a practice about yourself and bettering yourself," said Dusty, who's at the festival from California. He says parkour is more than just a fit way to get around; it teaches soft skills you can use in everyday life. "And the skills that you learn from it by practicing it can be let into everything you do."
Adrian, who has been coaching parkour since 2013, says he loved introducing the practice to all the beginners at the festival.
"The first impression of the practice is the most important. Most people can look at the practice and dismiss it as Ninja Warrior practice or something that's too high, too risky, too dangerous for them," said Adrian. "But the truth is quite the opposite. So if you have two arms, two legs or even less, you're likely to succeed in practice because it's driven by your own hands."
The festival features a weekend of workshops, training and celebration. Brad is a coach at the festival who has been doing parkour since the pandemic. He says he loves the freestyle nature of it all.
"It's funny, like, you see somebody do something and it's like, that looks good, I wonder if I can do that," says Brad. "Otherwise you're locked in certain ways of moving and habits that you do what you know you can do. So it's nice to kind of be expanding the boundaries all the time."
Johannes is a coach for a parkour school back in Germany. He says he loves how the practice has helped him not only find his community but also travel the world.
"I've never been so far away from home, it's my first time in the U.S. and I'm so happy to be here," says Johannes. "It's a great idea to have the most enthusiastic and best coaches from the world, plus to have, here, this event."
WBZ NewsRadio’s Kyle Bray (@KyleBrayWBZ) reports.