Get your hillbilly on at Monster Jam: a four-wheeled festival unlike any other

If Formula 1 is the champagne and caviar of motorsports then Monster Jam is the equivalent of beer and extra-spicy chicken wings. Consumed en masse in a backyard strewn with broken down fridges, loud friends and a sound system pumping out Merle Haggard hits. Yep, Monster Jam may be many things but refined it certainly isn't. 

But this is why it rocks you see. Like tucking into a great big triple-bacon cheeseburger after a hard night of drinking, this larger-than-life motorsport is one of those rare guilty pleasures that still allows you to escape the ridiculous grip of our overly PC world. From the relative discomfort of your plastic bleacher seat you can stare, slack-jawed in awe, as 4 500kg four-wheeled behemoths named Grave Digger, Megaladon, Zombie and El Toro Loco snarl their way around a makeshift dirt playground installed atop a football pitch. 

They can wheelie. They can donut. They can ramp 15-meters into the air and perform backflips. They are equipped with supercharged big-block V8 motors that pump out around 1,120kW. They put a big fat middle finger up to CO2 emissions and chug fuel like the kids sitting next to you chugged those supersized sodas dad just bought them. 

Monster trucks shouldn't exist in this day and age but they do. And I'm glad they do. Which is why I'm hollering out a great big "yee-haw" at the news that Monster Jam is coming to SA in April and May with three shows around the country. So go on: let your inner-hillbilly run amok and enjoy this badass motorised pantomime unlike any other. 

More more information click on MonsterJam.com or www.computicket.com

Monster Jam will be performing at the following venues:

Moses Mabhida Stadium, Durban, 20 April

Cape Town Stadium, Cape Town, 27 April

FNB Stadium, Johannesburg, 4 May