Bicycle Music Festival, San Francisco
The san francisco bicycle music festival combines two of the best parts of summer: open air concerts and riding around town with friends, creating a roving, interactive community celebration. On June 21, the longest day of the year, the festival starts at a Farmers' Market and winds through the streets of San Francisco pumping music with a pedal-powered sound system. Stopping at parks throughout the afternoon, the ride becomes a sunset street party with stilt walkers and fire spinners, and ends at a converted auto body shop turned artists' studio where the party continues until midnight.
Performers include: the Ginger Ninjas, who recently completed the "Pleasant Revolution," a bike-based musical tour in the USA and Mexico; didgeridoo-er Hernan Battiato; Justin Anchetta; folksy crooner Sonya Cotton; wordsmith Reztef Ttocs; Shake Your Peace; The Blank Tapes; Honey.Moon.Tree; Thao Nguyen, and Fossil Fool aka Paul Freedman. The festival provides loaner bicycles to musicians who don't have their own and recruits a team of volunteers with cargo bikes to participate as haulers.
Last year's festival saw about 2,000 people over the course of its 15-mile ride, with several hundred at each stop. This year, festival organizers are excited to welcome even more participants with music, performances, bike advocacy groups, and food at every stop. ----------