New Outdoor Bike Festival In The Works
‘What Tyres For Mountain Mayhem?’ was not the only topic of discussion at last weekend’s 24hr enduro. Organsiser Pat Adams gathered together brand managers from across the industry in the Singletrack marquee on Friday evening to begin a discussion process relating to his next big project.
Pat announced he had a venue in mind ’30 miles from London’ where he plans, in close conjuction with the bike industry and also with the the public, to put on a huge ‘festival of cycling’.
Members of the trade offered up their opinions, including a preference for a date in the spring, along with suggestions for what could be hosted and put on. Making it a huge Demo event with all brands supplying demo bikes from across the cycling spectrum was one suggestion, but Pat is keen to get the feedback and suggestions from all interested parties from potential visitors to members of the trade both large and small. This is a chance to join the debate on how you think a huge ‘all industry’ bike show/festival/demo weekend, organised by one of the World’s most experienced event organisers, should look. What would you like to see there?
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Posted on: June 24, 2009
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how about not 30 miles from london
Can we have something more technical that the, ooh, 8 tree roots of Mayhem’s course? Please?
how’s about here in Norway?
Music.
Mayhem would have been awesome with some live music on the last night.
A bit like BikerRadar Live then?
Wouldn’t a more central UK loation draw more visitors & competitors?
I’d like to see:
- More ‘come & have a go’ racing in MTB/BMX/Road (have entry on the day, keep it fairly easy and short).
- Live music & other entertainment would be good too (bit of stand-up, etc?).
- Cycling celeb’s doing demo’s, or proper eveing lectures/talks/advice (there’s not enough of this kind of thing at events).
- Most of all a HUGE ‘cycle market’ where suppliers are actually SELLING their kit at the show, not just displaying it!
If it’s to be a festival and not a race I’d love to see some films shown, not necessarily extreme action but some of the beautiful films that really capture the essence of cycling. Kind of like a mountain film festival, but with bikes, see.
Rollapaluza
Real Ale tent
Kids races (mine gets bored watching for too long)
Live music
Enduro/XC racing – team event of some sort
MTB DVDs/films on large screen
seperate area of trade stands and cycle related car boot type antics
trials demos
cyclo cross race
pro/elit short circuit race
Just don’t let it turn into the York cycling festival. I have never seen such a gathering of ‘cycling’ freaks in my life. Those people have little social essence.
A Malvern hills classic ’92 vintage for the STW generation would be nice.
I love the movies at night idea.
I guess a race / enduro / competitions of some form are required to pull in the punters.
Agree with the kids racing. Biggest disappointment of the last few years has been mini mayhem. Our kids enjoyed the original CycleActive mini mayhem, but haven’t even bothered entering the BC one – complete waste of time.
Music and movies have been great at previous Mayhems – the year with the classical music in the rain was surreal
Did the Folk at York ignore you, Flamejob?
Selfish vote but more northerly location preferred…..is this a day visit event, or a camping w/e?
Swinley, if you can the Crown Estate to agree.
There was music this year – a drum band. They were excellent and played to the firework competition (seriously) going on over the road.
I would like… The Malverns back, please.
Make it just about mountain biking. leave out the road bikes and touring tandems. Put on a dual slalom and descender that anyone can race. Put it in the middle of nowhere. Play good music, loud. And have booze, lots of booze.
started writing this before i saw flamejob’s post… woo! go team stiffback!
30 miles from London??? Blatantly trying to make money rather than putting on a bike event with good riding!
It’s understandable why Pat would want to put on a ‘bike festival’ as close to London as possible – UK’s most densely populated area, good road and public transport infrastructure into the area, close to airports for foreign visitors/exhibitors.
There are problems with putting an event that close to London though. The main reason the ‘Malvern Festival’ is no longer on is because local scum bags from the Birmingham area realised that there is a field a bit out of town with beer, music and over a million pounds worth of bikes lying around. After a lad got stabbed trying to stop someone stealing his bike the event was no more.
Also us MTB’rs are a sturdy bunch that don’t mind travelling if what is at the other end is worth the journey. The two MTB events that have had the largest spectator numbers have been held at Plymouth and Fort William, about as extreme North to South as you can get.
[i]30 miles from London??? Blatantly trying to make money rather than putting on a bike event with good riding![/i]
Yeah, cos the North Downs and Chilterns are complete rubbish.
You said it Ian!
Waht pretzelone said really
somewhere with weatherproof routes and no huge swathes of mown grass that gets wrapped round everything and turns the event into complete misery if the weather turns. Certainly like the festival idea with less emphasis on racing. Diversity of cycle disciplines would be interesting (to me anyway)
So he wants to put on a cycling festival in the south. A weekend celebrating mountain biking with lots of different events on. You want beer and live music as well.
Google Bikes Bands and Beer and the Big Bike Bash appears pretty near the top. http://www.bigbikebash.co.uk/
Looks like someone else had a similar idea before Pat. I just hopes Pat’s attempt will be as good
*If Pat is reading this, can you drop me an email, address on the website. Cheers
Definately more ‘festival’ than ‘race’ please, to bring in a whole load of novices and families and show them the joys of bikes and cycling.
Camping would be nice for those that had to travel.
Lots of commuter bikes for all those Londoners. Make sure there is a fleet of 1000 Bromptons! Maybe a Brompton race like I saw reported recently?
Perhaps an organised ride out from the capital?
Does Pat want to employ someone to help put it togther?