NASS Festival 2019 got underway yesterday (Friday) with Giggs and Grandmaster Flash starring, but the event was marred locally by the neighbouring Mendip School having to close due to festival-goers accessing the site and "inappropriate behaviour".

Having sold out of Weekend Camping and VIP Camping tickets, the Bath and West Showground near Shepton Mallet welcomed 30,000 festival-goers keen to make the most of NASS' selection of music acts, spread over 15 stages. 

Main Stage headline act Giggs  pleased the crowd with his unmistakable voice and energetic stage presence. Supporting on the Main Stage was East London's hottest new rapper Yxng Bane, living up to his reputation with a unique and genre-spanning set.

Hip hop legend Grandmaster Flash turned up the heat with his performance, scratching and mixing iconic tracks. Birmingham's Lady Leshurr entertained the crowd with her infectious humour.

With the sun shining over NASS, Maverick Sabre created a captivating set, while iconic street art duo PichiAvo treated the crowd to live street art.

The Southbank stage housed some of the biggest names in drum and bass.

This included Crissy Criss, SaSaSas, Turno, with a high-octane final set from Bou to close the stage for the night. Elsewhere the likes of Redlight, Preditah, Hannah Wants and Panda starred on the Hangar stage.

Pretty Weird, the creation of DJ Chloe Robinson AKA Barely Legal, took over The Lock In stage with an eclectic offering of artists including One Man, Novelist, Barely Legal b2b Madam X, Sicaria Sound and Myles Diverse.

It was an epic first day of BMX and Skate competitions, Charlotte Worthington (GBR) took home the BMX Park Women's title beating off fierce competition from Sasha Pardoe (GBR) and Kayley Ashworth (GBR) who finished second and third respectively.

After an exciting qualifier and final of the BMX Street Open, Mike Suttle (GBR) was crowned champion after combining huge airs with technical tricks. 

In the skating, John Howlett (GBR) impressed the judges and lively crowd with an astonishing display of skating, earning him the top spot of the Skate Men's Open.

NASS' legendary Ring of Fire made a return this year.

Some of the world's best skaters stomped tricks through a burning hoop in return for cash. Following a similar cash-for-tricks format was the Roscomar Skate Container Jam which saw skaters blasting huge wallride combos from ramp to ramp via the container, and an honourable mention goes out to USA's Will Lara who nailed an impressive backside blunt off the top of the container.

New this year was the Vans Bump to Bar, built to look like an actual pub bar, it produced an amazing display, with skaters putting their bodies on the line despite a packed schedule of competitions and jams throughout the day. 

However, it was not all plain sailing for the event, which suffered from traffic issues on Thursday, and the behaviour of revellers yesterday saw the Mendip School, situated on the Bath and West Showground. having to close.

In a statement on the school's website, head of school Natalie Hanna, said: "Thank you for your understanding regarding the closure of The Mendip School today, 12th July 2019.

"We appreciate your support around this and fully recognise how difficult and upsetting the situation is for our families.

"It is not a decision we take lightly and we really appreciate that this has been recognised through comments on our social media pages. Thank you.

"Today we have met with representatives from the Bath and West Showground, Vision 9 who organise the festival, security teams and the police.

"However, we have also continued to experience people accessing the school site and exposure to concerning and inappropriate behaviour.

"These organisations have made efforts to reassure us for Monday, however, we still have significant concerns around the behaviour of some of the 30,000 festival-goers which was unacceptable on Thursday and remains beyond our control.

"To ensure no trespassing on site there would need to be a large security and police presence from 7.30am on Monday, and even with this in place, there are no guarantees that pupils will not see things that we feel are not appropriate for them. As a result, we have made the decision to remain closed on Monday.

"In addition, the festival have reviewed peak timings for traffic congestion on Monday and have advised that it is possible that pupil collection timing of 2.20pm to 3.20pm will coincide with peak traffic flow."

A statement from the organisers said: "We are aware of disruption as children were being picked up from Mendip School on Thursday.

"We sincerely apologise to parents, pupils and the teachers of the school for the disruption. We are in touch directly with The Mendip School and are offering additional support as required during the NASS Festival.

"We will review under full consultation with the school and Bath and West Showground to evaluate the use of the adjacent land to create a sustainable co-existence between all parties, including the reassessment of the way in which the land is used to ensure we provide the appropriate resources and management required by the school in all future plans."