Itacoatiara Pro World Festival 2024, Itacoatiara Pro: Brazil's largest outdoor sports festival celebrates its 12th edition
The event, taking place in June in Niterói, offers sports championships with renowned athletes and the world's largest bodyboard event, along with a socio-cultural program featuring music, art, sustainability, and accessibility.
In June, the city of Niterói (RJ) hosts Brazil's largest outdoor sports festival. In its 12th edition, the Itacoatiara Pro World Festival offers music, art, and a lot of sports, including various modalities with national and international championships featuring renowned athletes. Additionally, the event promotes socio-environmental awareness with actions having a positive impact on the region.
This year, there will be five sports: bodyboard, skateboarding, surfing, bodysurfing, and cycling. Bodyboarding will feature the two most important competitions on the calendar, a national stage under the Brazilian Bodyboarding Confederation (CBRASB) - including PwD category contests - and one from the International Bodyboarding Corporation (IBC) World Circuit, which has become one of the most significant tour stops, being the world's largest bodyboarding event with a record number of participants from over 25 countries and 11 states of Brazil competing for over 250 thousand reais in prizes.
"Itacoatiara breathes bodyboarding, and the world championship has projected Niterói onto the global surfing stage. It's impressive to see the performance of the world's best athletes on this wave," noted Giuliano Lara, founder of Itacoatiara Pro.
Skateboarding will take place at Carlos Alberto Parizzi Skatepark in the São Francisco neighborhood, curated by Davison Fortunato, a skateboarder and social entrepreneur in the sport. The competition will feature representatives from various states on the street course considered one of the most fun in Brazil by athletes. The prize money will be 40 thousand Reais, equally divided between the female and male pro street categories. As a legacy for the city, Itacoatiara Pro will facilitate the renovation of the skatepark and the expansion of Bob Burnquist's Skate Cuida social project. In addition to operating in the Caramujo community, the project will now offer free skateboarding lessons at São Francisco skatepark. Besides the skatepark renovation, the skatepark's side wall, one of the city's largest graffiti panels, will also receive new colors with a select group of local graffiti artists in collective action.
"Itacoatiara Pro is an important event for Niterói as it continually builds a sports legacy for the city. With skateboarding, we are happy to bring this experience here, with influential figures from the scene like Davison Fortunato, a sports activist promoting skate culture worldwide, and Bob Burnquist, who already has an emotional connection with Niterói, where he maintains a branch of his Skate Cuida Institute. This was another legacy of Itacoatiara Pro, which began this partnership in the 2022 edition in Caramujo and now expands the core activities to São Francisco," said Bill Aquino, one of the event's organizers.
Surfing, one of the city's most important outdoor sports, will be one of the competitive events featuring Pro athletes, including Niterói's best surfers like Gabriel Sampaio and renowned surfers like Lucas Chumbo. The competition will take place on one day with big and perfect waves and will include a mixed Open category (Men and Women). The root of all surfing disciplines, bodysurfing, will also be in competition format. As a result, 32 invited professional athletes are expected, both for surfing and bodysurfing, aiming to establish itself as the most democratic form of surfing in the ideal place for practice, as Itacoatiara's tubular waves are the perfect stage for competitors to demonstrate their talent.
Cycling, however, will be participatory and will promote bicycle use in the city, representing both sports and urban mobility. It will start from São Francisco Skate Park, cross the Charitas Tunnel (Cafubá), one of Niterói's most important recent constructions, pass through the Lagoon, and reach Piratininga Beach, returning to its point of origin thereafter.
"Itacoatiara Pro highlights Niterói's natural inclination towards outdoor sports. It's worth noting the number of Niterói residents engaging in sports, whether on the beaches of Guanabara Bay, such as Icaraí and São Francisco, or on the oceanic beaches. At the same time, we are investing in new facilities, like the Niterói Sports Complex at the Concha Acústica, which will have official structures to host national and international events in various modalities," said Rubens Goulart, Niterói's Municipal Secretary of Sports and Leisure.
On the cultural side, the event will feature performances by major artists such as Supla and Oriente. There will also be an open-air cinema, gastronomic space, rap battles, graffiti, and DJs. Moreover, the socio-environmental program of Itacoatiara Pro will focus on ocean awareness, including beach cleaning drives, distribution of eco-bags, bodyboarding workshops for students from Niterói's municipal schools, and providing public school students with the opportunity to engage in collecting and analyzing scientific data.
