Rail Jam Plans on Track For Next Weekend

Plans for next weekend's Rail Jam in downtown Easton are moving forward on schedule, with one exception: organizers no longer need to truck in snow from a local ski resort, because there's already more than enough piled up in the city.

At a news conference Thursday morning, Easton Mayor Sal Panto said the snowboarding event scheduled for Centre Square will use snow trucked in from snowpiles around, the city, not from the Big Boulder ski resort as originally planed.

The change will save on fuel transportation costs, said representatives from the resort. Parking lots and other places with accumulated snow piles will be trucked to the site and then blown onto the ramp, then groomed.

Featuring a 140 foot long snowboarding ramp with a 13 foot drop that is to be the center attraction, the Drinky's/Red Bull/Big Boulder sponsored Rail Jam will also offer live music by bands from the School of Rock and local indie punk musicians Tune in Tokyo, DJs, prizes and giveaways from more than 15 snow sport vendors and local food vendors, organizers announced today. The event will run from 2 to 8 p.m., with a snowboarding competition planned for 5 p.m.

Snowboarding will be limited to qualified preregistered riders, a change from original plans, said Drinky's owner William Cornish.

“We figured rather than watch 40 amateurs...we'd get some guys that really know what they're doing to show the crowd some tricks,” he said.

Qualified local riders may register at the event website, he added.

Practice and warm-up boarding is set for 3 p.m. A competition will be held among the riders beginning at 5 p.m. Organizers plan extra lighting for the after-sunset tournament.

About 2,000 or more people are likely to attend, said Panto.

Red Bull representatives said the event is going to be pushed on local college campuses in the next week, and Facebook and radio ad campaigns have been ongoing. Panto added that he'd heard many local high school students and their families were planning on attending as well.

The event will be emcee'd by DJ Scotty Brilliant of 107.1 FM “The Bone.”

Organizers hope the event will be successful and plan to do it every year.

“These things tend to generate quite a buzz,” said Greg Melhem, Cornish's business partner. “We hope to make this an annual event.”

The event area will be closed to traffic beginning at 7 a.m. that morning, but only the eastern half the circle will be affected. Northampton Street will be closed from Sitgreaves Street to the Centre Square.

Event attendence is free. For more information about the event and a full schedule, go to www.DrinkysRailJam.com, www.drinkys.com or search RAIL JAM on Facebook.