About us
Welcome to the Colosseum skate park.
The skate park is managed by the Pedalpark Foundation and is run by volunteers.
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How did the skate park come about?
The Skateboard Park Groningen foundation was founded in 1997.
The foundation was founded by a group of skateboarding friends.
In August 1997, construction of the skate park on Peizerweg in Groningen started. A former auction hall would serve as a skate park in the future. In October 1997, the Colosseum 1.0 opened its doors to the public. The skate park was run entirely by volunteers.
The first lessons, demos, competitions and other events started at this location. Fixed costs were paid with the proceeds.
After two wonderful years at the Peizerweg, the zoning plan of the hall was changed. As a result, the skate park had to leave.
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Groningen Museum
Larry Clark held a retrospective exhibition in the Groningen museum. Larry Clark is a renowned American Photographer and cult director. Larry became known for, among other things, the film Kids.
Larry contacted the local skateboarders. When he heard that we had to leave the Peizerweg, he came up with the idea of ​​building a skate park in the Groninger Museum. No sooner said than done Larry created a new photo exhibition and the skaters built a skate park. Here you can see what it looked like. The first Groningen Skate video "The yellow brick road" also premiered during this period. The video is named after the yellow stones in the city center of Groningen. The video stars the local skateboard heroes of that time Klaas, Manfred, Xander, Wicher, Sander, Bastiaan, Eduard, Peter, Joost, Mark, Gerko, Marcel, Ruben, Luc and of course Larry Clark.
After the summer period, this location also came to an end.
All obstacles and materials were temporarily stored in the former taxi center.
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Paradijsvogelstraat
After a year and a half, a suitable location became available on Paradijsvogelstraat. A spacious hall where the sanitary facilities and relaxation area still had to be built in. Construction could begin in the summer of 2001. It became a skate park where many competitions and other events were held. Including fun concert evenings.
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Travertijnstraat
After the summer of 2013, the Colosseum was taken over by the Pedalpark Foundation. This foundation was involved in providing BMX lessons, competitions and demos.
This was done from an outdoor park in the Beijum district.
The Pedalpark Foundation ensured that the Colosseum could continue to exist. At the beginning of 2014, the skate park was moved to Travertijnstraat in the Broedplaats Backbone050 building. The skate park was built in the two old gymnasiums and the old swimming pool. The doors opened for visitors in March 2014.
Many lessons, competitions and events were also held at this location. The lease here would expire at the end of 2022. The search for a new location therefore started at the beginning of 2022.
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Koningsweg
In the course of 2022, the lease for a warehouse on Koningsweg was signed. It was on the small side but there was no alternative. After a few months, the site was prepared for construction and the materials were moved. Construction could therefore start. At that moment it turned out that the larger warehouse next to it became available. After some consultation and sleepless nights, the decision was made to move everything to this warehouse. Construction of the skate park started at the beginning of 2023. In May, the municipality of Groningen made €45,000 available to speed up construction. The Mud Crew company was hired from this budget to further assist with the construction. After completing the obstacles, all we had to do was continue with everything around it and wait for the inspection service to give the green light. The official opening was on Saturday, September 9, 2023.
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Colosseum on YouTube and social media
There are a number of fun videos from the past on the YouTube channel ColosseumOuweDoos.
You can find all the new images on the Instagram account colosseum_050.