Monster Jam reviewed

Starting small with introducing my fiancée and I’s respective families, we decided to take our nephews, Rob, age 6 and Tom, age 9, to the Monster Jam Free Style Mania event at the MEN arena. This is a fest of trucks, all kinds of motorbikes and even BMX bikes, but Monster Trucks are certainly the headline act.

Remarkably we arrived on time and took our seats just a few minutes before the event started. The arena floor was empty aside from three piles of cars, five in each, mostly Rovers. The first few rows of the stands were fenced off for safety purposes. As you would suspect there was a high number of adults with kids but not exclusively.

A big American voice came over the PA and things were starting to begin. In the background we could hear some beefy machines firing up, the lights went down and six trucks angrily entered the arena floor, completing lap after lap. At this point the ear plugs, that were kindly distributed, went in.

The evening is split into four events: Style, Time Trial, Doughnuts (spinning the truck on the spot very quickly) and Freestyle. We chose our favourites, El Toro Loco, Spider Man and Mohawk Warrior. Truck after truck jumped the piles of Rovers and the kids went wild. At the end of each run the drivers were scored. On completion of the event a winner was awarded with a trophy and this was subsequently given to someone in the crowd along with other freebies keeping the crowd going and adrenalin pumping between events.

After the first two events it was time for a change. Enter the motorbikes and BMX. A large ramp and landing platform were erected in the centre of the arena. In between these two structures a BMX ramp was also put in place. Whilst the BMXers were pulling tricks lower down, some high flying acrobatics were being pulled by the motocross bikes. Backflips, supermans and no footers were just a few tricks going off high up in the arena. This was seriously impressive stuff and was unanimously voted the highlight of the evening for us.

This event is bold, brashy American fare. I’m sure that some of the venues this is held in are larger than the MEN but the remarkable thing here was the proximity of the crowd to the action, which made it all the better. Looking round the arena throughout the evening I did not see many kids without smiles on their faces, lots of cheering and air punching, with dads in particular getting in on the action too. A good evening of raucous fun was had by all.