Always on
This project successfully funded on 6th November 2025, you can still support them with a donation.
Cat's Friday Skate Club Indoor sessions 2025/2026
Edinburgh, United Kingdom
First target reached!
help towards building materials!
Aim
We need your help to provide indoor skate sessions in Edinburgh over the cold, dark winter months.
Who are we?
We are Cat's Friday Skate Club, a community group who run free, friendly, weekly skate sessions for all ages, genders, abilities and backgrounds
In winter 2024/2025, with the help of our wider community, we were able to raise enough funds to do indoor sessions at least once a week, and put on some extra fun-days and events.
Why are we crowdfunding?
We want to continue running our indoor sessions at various venues in Edinburgh, including the Biscuit Factory in Leith and the Pitt Market in Granton, this winter. As there is no indoor skatepark in Edinburgh, it's our objective to provide a safe, welcoming space for existing and new members of our community to relax, skate and socialise together.
These sessions are intended to be safe and welcoming for ALL. Skateboarding is for everyone regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, sexuality or ability. Our sessions are for all levels of skating, no judgment, if you have only just started out skating or if you have skated all your life, it’s all just about getting out and getting on the board.
We make sure trained coaches are present at the sessions, so that if anyone is needing help getting started or just some general tips for learning new tricks, there is always someone around who can assist.
How we’ll spend the money raised
Just some of the costs for 4 months of weekly sessions November 2025 – February 2026 at the Biscuit Factory, and the Pitt.
- minimum insurance estimate needed to run indoors: £1500
- storage for our ramps at the venue £150 per month: £600
- venue hire for 16 x sessions over 4 months: £1600
- materials for fixing up existing ramps and building new ones: £500
- Staff costs: £640
TOTAL: £4840
the minimum amount we need to run is: £3700
At the moment we are entirely run by volunteers, any extra funds raised will go into fixing up our existing ramps and and building new obstacles... what obstacles would you like to see?
We would also love to be able to cover the travel and food costs of the helpers who run the sessions as we want to be able to give a bit of support back to our hard-working volunteers!
Community impact
Winter is a time when we most need a safe sheltered space to skate and socialise. We collected comments from attendees about the importance of having access to indoor spaces for skateboarding and other wheeled sports. We found that for some, the weekly sessions are a reason to get out of the house and see people, for some younger skaters, its the thing that keeps them from anti-social behaviours, and for many people, skateboarding is the only thing that keeps them going.
Here are a few of the comments we collected from attendees about why they skate and why we need an indoor facility in Edinburgh.
“I skate to clear my head, and to take my mind off the things that trouble me”
“skating makes me feel good, keeps me active, is good for my mental health, gives me confidence. Get to socialise more.”
“I skate to keep fit and meet people”
“because life is pretty s*** and skating is my only get away”
“to challenge myself, conquer fears, and have fun while exercising, gain new skills”
“I skate for mental health, freedom, community, self development, physical health.”
“as a woman I feel safer and more comfortable in a controlled environment that has staff & access to toilets & warmth, food, drinks. Outdoor parks in the cold, dark nights of winter can be more scary or intimidating (not because of other skaters but more because of random folk who could be hanging around)”
“I get to be with friends”
“we need a facility to give everyone a safe space free of judgment where they are all there for the same thing.”
At this moment in time there is STILL no permanent indoor skatepark in Edinburgh, Scotland's capital city.
Transgression Park in Ocean Terminal was Edinburgh's only indoor skatepark but unfortunately it closed in 2023, so after enduring that first winter without a safe, sheltered place to skate, we took it on as a community to find a solution.
At our 2024/2025 sessions we managed to run free sessions and after January we introduced a ‘donate to skate’ option for those who could afford to, in order to stay running a couple of extra months.
It is important for us to be able to keep these sessions free for those who need it, so that there are no economic barriers for anyone who wants to come and skate!
How you can play your part
There are four simple ways to help us reach our target, and make this project a reality.
1. Make a pledge. Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success!
2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.
3. Offer rewards. Get involved if you are a local business by donating things we can offer to our supporters. We will give you a shout out!
4. Fundraise for us. If you want to run your own fundraiser – maybe a sponsored activity or similar – use the 'contact project' button at the top of our page to let us know.
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made