Bike Music Fest rides into sixth year in style
EUGENE, Ore. – May 12, 2014 – An all-Oregon lineup of performers will be featured at this year’s Bike Music Fest, the UO Bike Program’s annual celebration of bicycles, music and human power.
In its sixth year, the free festival kicks off at 5 p.m. on Thursday, May 22, at the EMU Amphitheatre on the University of Oregon campus with Eugene’s own folkgrass group, Dirty Dandelions. The festival will then roll into motion with Bend-based DJ, bPollen, performing from the EMU Amphitheatre en route to Skinner Butte Park from a mobile bike stage designed and fabricated in Eugene.
The Skinner Butte Park stage features acts from Eugene’s Afro-Brazilian percussion crew Samba Ja and hip-hop trio MOsley WOtta. Portland-based indie-dance group Adventure Galley will close out the festival.
The power at both stages is dependent on audience members pedaling stationary bikes. Everyone is encouraged to get on the bikes and fuel the show’s energy.
“It creates this really amazing connection between band members and the audience members, who are now a part of the music creation,” said Briana Orr, UO Bike Program Coordinator. “You’re no longer just passive and sitting in the audience, you’re an active participant in that experience and making it possible.”
“Live-on-bike is something special to me – taking bikes out to the street and getting hundreds of people shaking it and having a good time and dancing on their bikes and moving through town… [it] is really fun and special to see,” said Dave Villalobos, co-founder of UO Bike Program’s Bike Music Fest and owner of local business Pedal Power Music.
Villalobos is collaborating with Alan Scholz, co-founder of local bike business Bike Friday, and currently retrofitting their “Haul-a-day,” cargo bike with a sidecar and rear-facing stage to debut at the festival.
“We’re already getting requests from different parades and different events all throughout the state who want to use this craft, and it’s not even done yet,” says Villalobos.
In 2012, the UO Bike Program received the “Excellence in Innovations for Sustainability” from the Association of College Unions International for the creating the system used to pedal power Bike Music Fest.
The 2014 Bike Music Festival is presented by EWEB and Healthy Oregon.
About the Bike Music Festival
Since 2009, the Bike Music Festival has passionately promoted bikes, human power, good music and fun. The festival has grown with the support of the community, UO students, the UO Bike Program and Outdoor Program. The festival promotes sustainable performance and works to educate both performers and concertgoers about what it takes to fuel performances.
About the UO Bike Program
The University of Oregon Bike Program, a branch of the UO Outdoor Program, works to connect students with bicycles. Since 2008, the student-run program has offered low-cost bicycle loans, a free do-it-yourself bike maintenance shop, and bike related classes and events for the UO community.
MEDIA CONTACT: Briana Orr, UO Bike Program Coordinator, 541-852-1429, borr@uoregon.edu
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