Masters of Dirt
13 Apr 2026
18,000 Fans, a New 12m High-Jump World Record and a SHIVA Surprise
The doors opened. The lights cut. 18,000 Italian fans filled every corner of Unipol Forum Assago. And then Milano lost its mind.
On Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 April 2026, Masters of Dirt returned to Milano for the third Italian edition of the world's craziest freestyle show — and by the time the final pyro hit, the city had written itself into M.O.D history. Two nights. Two sold-out arenas. One crowd that refused to sit down. Few people in the building knew the backstory: the entire M.O.D production load-in only began in the early hours of Saturday morning, the second Louis Tomlinson's concert cleared the venue the night before. Zero margin for error. The crew delivered anyway.
The riders delivered accordingly. Loudest crowd = biggest tricks, and Milano stayed loud from start to finish. Colombian BMX star Kazique scraped the roof of Unipol Forum with a brand-new 12-metre high-jump WORLD RECORD — a number that shut the door on the highest-air competition. MTB freestyler Samy Louis Fernbach went into the weekend planning a single backflip tsunami, but after his very first attempt he changed his mind on the spot and went for the double — stomping a double backflip tsunami that genuinely made jaws hit the floor. Jose Mincha pulled multiple front-flip combos that had the entire venue on its feet.
The most technical and frankly mind-blowing MTB trick of the weekend belonged to Dawid Gozdiek, who landed a cashroll windshield wiper — one of those moves that's almost impossible to describe in words (look it up, it's worth it). Over on the heavy machinery, Marcus Ohlsson launched his snowmobile and Ales Rosman threw his quad — two 300+ kg beasts treated like featherweight toys. And then there was Iron Jaw, the mysterious masked Harley-Davidson rider, who sent his 883 Sportster soaring the entire length of Unipol Forum — an image straight out of a fever dream.
Saturday night broke the script. Milan's own SHIVA, one of Italy's biggest trap artists, showed up live for the show reopening — just one day after releasing his new album. Nobody saw it coming. We wrapped his performance in M.O.D's signature Synchro riding, with BMX, MTB, FMX and a snowmobile all launching over his head while he performed. The crowd reaction was pure disbelief.
Sunday went somewhere freestyle has never been before. In partnership with Red Bull 64 Bars, M.O.D staged the first-ever rap-meets-freestyle crossover: Italian rapper NERISSIMA performed underneath flying motocross bikes, while ARTIE 5IVE took centre stage as trial superstar Adrian Guggemos played the ramps in his own way and — as the set was coming to an end — ended up wheeling circles around the artist. Culture and chaos, live.
The standout moment came on the smallest shoulders in the building. 7-year-old Rockstar Harley pulled a massive backflip in front of thousands of young fans watching from the grandstands — one of the most emotional moments of the weekend. Krystof Masek (13) and Matyas Novotny (14) threw FMX tricks that had the older riders bowing for respect. Mia Salchenegger stomped clean double backflips and sent huge frontflip attempts. Connor Stitt played the crowd with spin-to-bounce tricks that felt like freestyle choreography.
The future of action sports is already here — and it was on the Milano floor.
Italy backed its own, too. Massimo Bianconcini, FMX heavyweight from Bologna, took home the Fan Favorite award — the loudest verdict possible from a Milanese home crowd for a fellow Italian — and inline rider Giovanni Peterle earned huge cheers every time he hit the ramp. Classic Milano energy.
Eagle-eyed fans also clocked something interesting: freeride MTB rider Pascal Sapunar was quietly practicing in the venue. Could she be prepping for the Latin America leg of the Freestyle Firestorm tour, landing in Chile in September? Stay tuned — we'll find out soon.
Three editions deep in Italy, second in Milano, and already Italy is one of the loudest homes on the M.O.D map. That's what 23 years of touring, 260+ shows and a crew that lives to make people happy builds: a real family, country by country, arena by arena. Fresh M.O.D drops are always at https://store.mastersofdirt.com/.
The tour doesn't stop. The M.O.D Freestyle Firestorm tour now heads back to Austria for its final two stops of 2026: Graz and Salzburg. Tickets are still available at https://www.mastersofdirt.com/events — and if Milano was any indication, the bar just got a lot higher.
Milano, you were insane. See you next time, louder.
