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This week, parkour athletes and free-runners gathered at Smith Park for the seventh edition of “Join or Die,” (JOD) a four-day parkour event billed as the largest street parkour event in the US.

The event, organized by David Ehrlich and Alec Reduker at The Commons Parkour, hosted participants from Australia, Arizona and Allston. The event kicked off on October 3 with an open parkour training and women- and queer-friendly parkour jam in the park’s amphitheater. A build team set up a course where parkourist vaulted, climbed and rolled through obstacles.

“We have a fire truck that folds out of a transformer setup with a bar cage coming out of the top. We have a 17-foot-tall trampoline coming out of a wall that we’re building,” says Ehrlich. “It’s like this whole spectacle.”

The next two days consisted of street parkour and trick competitions and parkour workshops at the Jackson Mann Community Center Plaza (40 Armington St). These events were accompanied by an art gallery, film screenings of parkour runs and Parkour Beer League — where rounds of parkour courses are completed between sips of beer.

The event drew athletes from across the globe — from Australia and England to Brazil, Germany, and the Czech Republic. Reduker calls JOD “the congregation point in the United States for this community and for the year.”

Parkour, a sport where one trains to overcome physical obstacles by adapting their movement to their environment, has “a really deep lore” in Massachusetts, according to Ehrlich. “The pedigree and talent that comes out of Massachusetts now for the parkour scene, in competitions and style, is so high.” From parkour gyms of veteran Dylan Polin to the existence of outdoor parkour parks, a community of parkour athletes has been deeply cultivated in the area.

Allston has been the home of Ehrlich and Reduker’s JOD events for almost a decade.

What began as a small gathering among friends has grown into a cornerstone of the U.S. parkour scene. Ehrlich recalls that The Commons Parkour began in his apartment when he moved into Allston seven years ago, which over time became a “a parkour house,” as athletes moved in.

Early JOD events took place in Ehrlich’s backyard, where hundreds would gather to jump between structures. “We’d have a barbecue. We shut down the street one year and expanded out of our property, out into the street.” When attendance outgrew the property, the event expanded into Smith Park and Jackson Mann.

The organic growth has caught the attention of major sponsors, with brands like Celsius, Polar Seltzer, and Converse now supporting the event.

For Ehrlich and Reduker, however, JOD remains rooted in the neighborhood’s countercultural and welcoming nature.

“What allows the event to exist in the way that it does is the history of Allston being so counterculture to the uptightness of Boston — and the Allston-Brighton community being generally so receptive. Everyone I’ve met in the community around the area, are like, ‘What you’re doing is really cool. We love to come check it out.’ It’s incredible,” says Ehrlich.

For athletes, JOD is as much about connection as competition. This is the second JOD for Rixio Sandoval, a parkour athlete who moved to New Jersey from Venezuela six years ago. “The best part is when you train with friendly people,” says Sandoval. “When you know more people, more friendly people, more experienced people, you can learn from them.”

Caleb Bertrand, visiting from Arizona, sees JOD as an event that gives the parkour community visibility and legitimacy. “It helps make us more recognizable,” he says.

To Reduker, a sense of openness and belonging is what makes parkour special — and what JOD aims to celebrate. “We’re all a bunch of kids who want to be superheroes, and no matter if people are wearing baggy pants or, you know, trying to be tough or trendy or cool, everybody here is a massive nerd somewhere in their heart. So if you feel like you could have a place amongst those people, then give it a shot.” ■