Part of ‘Skateboarding and The City III’ supported by the National Lottery Community Fund
Panel chair and developer
The People’s Hall, Nottingham, UK
September 26th 2025
A panel providing professional insights and advice on entryways into media and creative disciplines developed for Skate Nottingham and the ‘Skateboarding In The City III’ festival.
Skate Nottingham: ‘Skateboarding In The City III’
Skate Nottingham is a non-profit organisation and community interest company focused on sports development and alternative education through skateboarding. For their third ‘Skateboarding In The City’ festival, I convened a panel focused on accessibility to skateboarding media.
The panel was titled ‘First Light’ in homage to a Sidewalk Magazine‘s column of the same name which introduced emerging talents across the UK. It brought together established and emerging figures working in print and digital media across various disciplines, sharing about ways into journalism, videography, photography, art and design, branding and community building, aiming to engage people without prior experience.
Sam Ashley, co-founder and photography editor of Free Skate Mag (centre) speaks about his career as a photographer working for the UK’s and Europe leading skateboarding publications.
“Farran has spoken about Skate Bylines and his wider work as vehicles for knowledge-sharing and empowerment for younger and more diverse journalists and creatives. Not just in skateboarding, but to access opportunities with titles that continue to run through closed networks of older creators. As a reader of his journalism for many years I recognised his long-term objectives for Skate Bylines were complimentary with the values of Skate Nottingham and this mission was central to ‘First Light’, the panel Farran curated, assembled and chaired for ‘Skateboarding In The City III’.
‘First Light’ engaged fresh voices, including those from minority backgrounds, giving parity of esteem alongside more established voices in-line with an ambition to create new forms of mentoring and role-modelling. Farran was instrumental in seeing the opportunity as advocating for the people he felt had to be platformed, then assembling and capturing a provocative but respectful and safe public discussion which closely aligned with the National Lottery’s funding priority to “bring people together” in order to “build strong relationships across communities.”
I’m looking forward to our collaboration continuing, including in the work I do with Higher Education and as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.”
Chris Lawton FRSA, co-founder and CIC cirector, Skate Nottingham and community development lead for Skateboard GB (2021—26)
Panelists for Skate Nottingham and Skate Bylines’ ‘First Light’:
• Sam Ashley, photographer, photo editor and co-founder of Free Skate Magazine, Europe’s leading skateboarding publication
• Lizzie Heath, an artist and illustrator who works with LovenSkate Skateboards, leading British publications including Vague Skate Mag and The Skateboarder’s Companion, and is a self-publisher of artwork, zines and prints
• Joe Allen, an independent videographer based in Leeds, West Yorkshire whose work has been featured in Grey Skate Mag (UK), Skate Jawn (NY, USA) and shown at Vladimir Film Festival (Fažana, Croatia)
• Alexis Lewis, designer, screen-printer and founder of PETTICOAT., a brand and community project dedicated to creating space for women and LGBTQIA+ skaters based in Bristol, UK
• Myself, as the panel’s chair, speaking from a journalistic perspective about my experience writing about skateboarding for endemic and wider publications including Quartersnacks, GQ and more.
Photography by Tom Quigley, courtesy of Skate Nottingham