The Rat's Cup — the surf, music and skate festival on the Basque coast — delivered another fabulous edition, full of promise for the continuing partnership with Digital Campus in Biarritz.
The Rat's Cup — the surf, music and skate festival on the Basque coast — delivered another fabulous edition, full of promise for the continuing partnership with Digital Campus in Biarritz.
The unmissable end-of-summer festival
The Rat's Cup — Biarritz's must-attend summer event — lived up to every expectation: three days of glorious weather, with evening thunderstorms that put on a show without disturbing the 15,000 festival-goers. The Rugby World Cup match between France and New Zealand was broadcast on the big screen, as was our video announcing the opening of the Biarritz Campus.
In the crowd, you could spot the founders of the leading young French rock-pop band 'La Femme', Sacha Got and Marlon Magnée, whose story began on this very beach, as well as the directors of the film Surf Gang, skateboarding champions on the Vans skate ramp, and world longboard champion Antoine Delpero — all drawn to this little slice of paradise, the Côte des Basques. The event made room for everyone: shared wave sessions for the Volcom brand, heats for female surfers, for groms (young surfers), and for legends. The invitations catered to all.
The group of friends who started the event as a small surf club competition can be proud of the scale it has reached, while keeping its authenticity intact. The association's members are full of ideas for future students, eager to welcome new generations and carry on this event they started in their youth — and to open it up to new horizons.
A positive-impact festival
Association members are already talking about bringing students to the festival site, and more importantly, about the positive-impact projects they could create together. The association has always championed giving back to this beautiful beach: initiatives that led to a solidarity project in Morocco, and also on the island of Martinique in the wake of the devastating Hurricane Maria in 2017. The future of these projects will be written alongside Digital Campus students in Biarritz.
Many other avenues also emerged on this stunning stretch of the Côte des Basques. Numerous exchanges with high-level surfers — such as Antoine Delpero, entrepreneur and former pro surfer Amandine Sanchez, and Lee-Ann Curren, European surf champion and Franco-American musician — point to exciting prospects for our students. Looking at all the projects that have historically been born on this stretch of beach, it's fair to say that Biarritz Campus students will truly be doing digital for good with sand between their toes, and will soon be bringing innovative projects to life from this beautiful spot that is ours.
To be continued…