Approaching it’s seventh year, Pete chatted to South African snapper Eric Palmer about where The Night Harvest idea came from.
Dirt and slopestyle comps seem to be all the rage these days, from the massive Red Bull events like District Ride, all the way down to home-grown events like The Night Harvest.
Celebrating its seventh year this year on May 17th, Pete had a chat with Eric Palmer about what The Night Harvest is all about.
Who is Eric Palmer?
I’m a photographer from Stellenbosch, South Africa I mainly photograph BMX, MTB and MX, but will dabble in any form, from Landscape to macro and portraits. I enjoy the action side of things more, so dirt jumping and DH have been my main focus.
What’s your background in cycling?
Strangely enough I don’t ride much myself, I grew up in Jonkershoek, which is littered with trails and rode a bit as a kid. Cycling then wasn’t what it is now, so didn’t get hooked & all my friends started skating so I joined them. I have been into action sport for most of my life and when my own skating slowed down & I got a camera I was drawn to photographing bikes.
That was just over 10 years ago & since then I’ve had to learn the technical side of DH to be able to anticipate which little bumps in the ground will make the riders get a good body position and having to learn all the BMX & MTB trick names. I love working with riders because of the awesome locations they ride here and I love using flash when I shoot & bikes are so awesome to light up. The very first shoot I did was a DH race that happened near my house the weekend I got my camera.
What’s your background in the cycling industry?
After photographing bikes for a few years I was making friends with some of the riders and 2 of the guys I work a lot with (Ryan Franklin & Justin Novella) were actually riding the first race I shot and invited me to their house to shoot their backyard trails. Ryan, whose house it was, now works for Monster Energy and got me on board. With Sven Martin & Gary Perkin also being from Cape Town it was really difficult to catch a break shooting with any well-known riders, but partnering with Monster opened up more doors to work with their athletes, which has been amazing.
How did The Night Harvest come about?
The Night Harvest started off with the tight local crew of MTB & BMX riders having a backyard competition at Potato Trails, Johnty Human’s trails in Hout Bay. The scene here is small, but everyone is driven & has their skill to bring to the table. 2012 was the first year and was mainly riders from Cape Town.
In 2013 it got stepped up and had riders from all over the country take part. 2014 is where it made a big jump and Sam Reynolds was here filming Sam’s World 2 with Sam Pilgrim (who unfortunately got sick the evening of the event & couldn’t take part).
Greg Illingworth had also been travelling a lot and made friends with a lot of the international BMX riders and brought a small group to start & everyone loved it so much here that each year after that there were more and more big names coming through to compete and is now on a full international competition level, but with a fun jam style format, so it feels more like a fun session rather than having tonnes of pressure to put down 1 clean run.
How did you choose the location for the event?
A lot of the trails here are on public property and we didn’t want to risk any complaints from events and stand a chance of them being ploughed. Johnty’s back yard is pretty much an empty plot they started building in. Hout Bay has some of the most amazing views and is surrounded by mountains, so it was an easy choice to make to have the event there.
Are there plans to change the course over time?
The course has changed a bit over the years. A few lines were added & removed and after the step up & berm there was a small whale tail for 2014, but the boys decided to scrap it & rather build a nice big double, which is way more trick-friendly. I have heard that the property is up for sale, so this might be the last year at Potato Trails, but it’s definitely not the last year for The Night Harvest!
What kind of red tape did you have to cut through to get the event off the ground?
Luckily we have Ryan & Denzil from Monster that handle all the legal side of things and they have experience in what needs to be done so we don’t get in trouble for inviting a few thousand people to a back yard jam.
What advice would give to anyone looking to organise a similar event?
Surround yourself with good, motivated people and grow your own scene as much as you can. Get kids involved, have events and get as much quality media out of it to make more people want to join in on the fun. If you know any people in the industry that can help, get in touch with them, but hold a few events on your own so that they can see you’re dedicated and that with their help it can only be bigger and better.
How many people make up the team behind event and what do they do?
It started off with just a handful of the riders building and organising the rest of the logistics, but has now grown to a huge crew of builders, a full media team and another team of guys that handle the sponsorship and safety etc. If you meet most of the team you might wonder how a bunch of silly guys manage to get anything done, but once we all put our heads down things come together.
What did you have to sacrifice to get to this stage?
Mainly man hours getting the trails to an international standard that would make riders want to come all the way to South Africa. Otherwise it’s just been dedication to a vision we knew we could achieve & I think we have surpassed most of our expectations by miles, so everyone is super stoked to give it their all.
Did you have day jobs that you had to give up?
Most of the riders were young & either in the last years of high school or starting university, so most of the guys didn’t have jobs yet. It’s also only once a year, so as long as the planning starts long in advance (that’s Ryan’s side and is his job for Monster, so he managed to combine his passion and work quite well), the building mainly happens a few weeks leading up to the event and whoever has a few hours to dig, heads to the trails & gets busy. The media team have been dreaming of shooting most of these riders, lots of us do other shoots between to keep things rolling, but this is one of our highlights of the year and wouldn’t miss it for anything.
Are you working alongside to make ends meet?
With Ryan & I working for Monster, they are the title sponsor, but this year we’re working with Rush, SRAM, Mongoose, ilabb, Von Zipper and The Trails Crew
How make or break is the event for you?
It’s the best dirt jump competition in Africa, so would be incredibly sad to lose it after all the years of work we’ve all put in to get it where it is now. As long as the sponsors stay on board and help us make this a reality, we’ll keep going and push to make it bigger & better every year!
How did you learn what you needed to know to get the event off the ground to the point where you could open entries?
It was basically just trial & error and getting a bit of input from everyone. We didn’t bite more than we could chew and started small so we could handle it. The more things grew the more we adapted, but with the groundwork in place it was just adding more on top. A lot of us work in the field that we add to the event, so we grow and learn every year and just do the best we can.
The growth of the event has changed the way we’ve had to run things. The first few years it was pretty much a free for all, but now it’s limited to invites only. If international riders are coming to put on a show you don’t want everyone with a bike hucking themselves & breaking the jumps during the contest. There are many sessions after the event where everyone is welcome to ride and practice.
Where next for you and The Night Harvest? How do you plan to go about getting extra helpers etc. etc.?
I think at the moment we have an amazing team & everyone knows their roles and are good at what they do. More builders are always welcome, so I’m sure we’ll recruit some of the younger kids in future.
Anybody to thank at this point in the journey? Long suffering spouses/parents/friends?
I think first and most importantly is Freddy and the Human family for letting us take over their back yard every year.
The Trails Crew for always making the jumps super mint, Ryan for making it all happen & getting the guys here, Greg Illingworth for spreading the word and bringing more & more BMXers over each year…
I know I’m forgetting tonnes of people, but they all know who they are. Anyone that’s come to watch, ridden or been a part of the organisation has helped get us to where we are.
For full details on the 2018 Night Harvest event, head over to the event Facebook page here.
