DARKFEST 2026 10th EDITION Whats New

All right welcome everyone to Darkfest 2026 build series super exciting times however I'm sure you've noticed I'm not actually there out in Stellenbosch with the crew um helping the boys unfortunately that's because three weeks ago our daughter was diagnosed with ADEM encephalitis it's actually a super rare autoimmune disease which caused a brain swelling so she's been in hospital for the last couple weeks and I'm really happy to say um that she's out now and she's recovering with us at home but it's definitely not the right time for me to be leaving the family quite yet and going out there but luckily we've got the most solid build crew in uh in the whole world and I put my trust totally in them guys to to get on with it without me and I'm sure there's someone even more hard-working even more professional that knows exactly what they're doing on the Monster Energy team right? Unfortunately Seadog can't make it here until Monday. Ah okay what about Hodgie? Nope unfortunately Hodgie can't make it either he's digging in his backyard at the moment for backyard battle. Maybe Lucas Schaefer he makes some pretty cool stuff? Unfortunately Schaefer's still in New Zealand. I really don't want to but uh there is still one more guy we can call. Ah okay surely we don't have to invite him again he literally got dead last at hardline last week. Yeah bro I'll make that course lecker for you Well god help us fingers crossed everyone whilst he's getting on with that I'm going to explain to you about the new features that we're going to rebuild not only we're going to rebuild the same epic course that everyone loves including the 90, the 110, the big step up, the rockets and the new quarter pipe from last year we're going to be improving that to hopefully get even bigger air down into the shark fins and the new section we're actually also something we've always wanted to do instead of going off the drop after the step up when you turn right we actually have to break a lot before going off of there which obviously for big air we want even bigger air so we're going to make a line over to the left so you can bypass the drop along the top of this ridge up here carry full speed from the step up landing all the way along there pump as hard as you can down to the bottom and we're going to make an extra takeoff lip on the left to land into that huge landing that we've already built so the rocket line is going to stay exactly the same so you can still do the usual drop the classic straight one which is already pretty much the biggest airtime jump that I've ever ever ridden myself we're going to make that even bigger with this huge lip over to left it's going to be absolutely insane and surely the biggest airtime that anyone's ever experienced on a mountain bike which is going to be epic at this point in time upper management can't see the vision yet I just see it I'm just scared I don't know what he's planning on doing but I've seen some sort of visual representation and it's a massive lip next to the original rocket which was for me enough I can't believe we need to have a bigger one next to it but that's what the bosses have ordered we need to call in the consultant Mr Seadog I don't actually know where they've been planning on going down the ridge so we have had confirmation from the boss that Seadog will be coming in here on Monday watch him get to work I guess everyone's building massive second rocket launch ellipse is a little bit out of my pay grade but if we come up to the step up here we're going to work on something which is a little bit more my area of expertise let's see what we've got so despite the bad news that Sam's not here yet during the build we've got some amazing news that the man the myth the legend Adolf Silva will be joining us at Darkfest this year so we plan to build the loco lounge at the step up where Adolf has done some of the most insane most loco maneuvers we've got the support of Devault tools to build the structure we're going to make a nice wooden platform where everyone can have a monster catch all the track and all the action yeah man make a make a loco lounge that will do Adolf proud to the senior manager of the build comes with a couple of perks company car being one apparently so we're off to Ford in pole to go pick up the new corporate company whip can't wait to see what they've got in store for the senior manager might just be my size because I know almost slim to nothing about trail building I'm going to introduce you to a few of the South Africa's finest trail builders that have been in charge of the Darkfest build for the last few years I'm sure they will have a lot more interesting things to say than me hey what's up guys I'm Justin Novella from the trails crew and yeah I've been part of the Darkfest build for quite a few years now actually and yeah it's good to be back another year it's a hot one this year in February but yeah we should get get a lot done and it's gonna look good how's it guys my name's Alesso I'm working with the trails crew for like five years now I'm helping up at Darkfest for past two three years yeah very keen to get the course prepped get it going and last year I got the privilege to ride it myself which was absolutely unbelievably lekker so very keen to see what we can do this year what we can do to fix it up what we can do to add some new things or build some new things yeah it's gonna be best year than ever so these are those with the actual plan and they will talk you through what needs to be done to the course I'm quite late for my tea time I reckon good luck boys it's quite hot out here yeah I mean just make it lekker it's only downhill bikes yeah so we've just been walking up checking things out all the tops or all the tops off the top section now and it's looking pretty good just a bit of like plants and stuff that need to be shaved off but yeah bit of rain coming in the next few days so that should help with a bit of handwork on the top section and then yeah we'll start working our way down making everything else rideable just went past the 90 landing hip and twisty wizard everything's looking pretty good minimal work so yeah we're quite fortunate so big jobs only yeah we are here at the legendary dark fair step up you can see on the quarter pipe there was quite a big collapse so that's going to be quite a big job this year we are planning to tweak it a little bit yeah just fold it a bit further in and steepen up the landing so the riders can actually go as high as they want and have a nice steep landing to to drop into because the course is so massive every small job turns into quite a big job but yeah we'll get it done okay here we are at the bottom of the ridge now where the massive new takeoff going into the first rock it's going to be this whole area is going to be transformed we've got a lot of dirt to move but yeah machines are arriving on monday and yeah we've got a lot of work to do it's going to be exciting because i'm known to work quite hard on course the bosses have treated our build crew with a nice hot tub the only problem is it's cold at the moment we don't have any wood luckily though the devolved tools boys have us sorted with this immaculate little electric chainsaw safety specs on and let's get some wood for the tub so as you can see lots to be done on course we want to wish lila the speediest recovery ever and we wish our big air father sam reynolds is with us but as you can see we're in safe hands um our austrian godfather comes back on monday the machines get in on monday like and subscribe because we will be producing some of the best build videos coming soon whoa whoa whoa and because this is the 10th year of dark fest there's been nine years of the most insane big air action on this course so here's a little montage just to get you amped and we'll see you in episode two if you subscribe