CycleFest comes to Calgary!
On Saturday June 6, Downtown’s East Side and the Confluence park were taken over for a one-of-a-kind event — Calgary’s inaugural Cyclefest! Cyclefest brought together local businesses, sponsors, bike enthusiasts, and more than 2,500 Calgarians to celebrate independence and freedom on two wheels.
Thanks to funding from a Downtown in Motion Grant, Youth en Route has been working on the event prep for over a year. The goal was to bring the work we do at schools to empower youth wih the skills and equipment to bike places, to the Calgary community. Dozens of organizations set up tents in the Confluence park, including charities, shops and businesses, schools and universities, and departments from the City of Calgary. Along 7th Ave. SE in the East Village, the city’s bike community had booths to test bikes, sell gear, and introduce people to how biking can be a fun and effective means of transportation.
Learn to Bike!
The school team, led by cyclist-in-residence Kimberley Nelson, was running learn-to-bike sessions for new riders young and old. Over the course of the event, 23 people got up and pedalling on two wheels for the first time.
“The Learn to Ride exhibit really encapsulated what CycleFest is all about,” said Nelson. “We had new riders of all ages. We had a dad learning to ride along with his four and six-year-old daughters for the first time. We had young professionals , living in downtown, eager to ditch their car lifestyles, and we had many young children who went away successfully riding a bike.”
Almost everyone who signed up to learn to bike got to ring the victory bell, the sign of a successful solo two-wheel ride. One of the new riders was even spotted test-riding e-bikes at the trade show booths only half an hour after she learned to ride for the first time.
Our Cyclists-in-Residence hosted fun tours of downtown throughout the day, showing visitors how bikes can be used to cut through downtown traffic as a convenient means of transportation in the Calgary core. The focus was on building confidence and skills to navigate the cycletracks safely.
Youth en Route’s popular Kids Bike Trade-Up event was a massive giveaway at CycleFest, with 31 bikes being traded in and 35 kids walking away with new wheels. That means 31 bikes kept out of landfills and given to kids who had outgrown their old bikes.
The Main Stage
A packed event schedule at the main stage meant that entertainment was always available. Green Fools Theatre had performers throwing knives, doing flips and acrobatics, and showing off stunts on minibikes.
As a grand finale, they would have a “cavalry charge” on a minibike, with a volunteer from the crowd holding a target for the performer to aim for. Performances were interspersed with street hockey games from Play On, bike events like the cargo bike races, and musical numbers by local talent.
So what’s next for Cyclefest? We are evaluating the event and working on plans for next year. Comments from visitors were overwhelmingly positive.
If you’d like to be part of the fun, please reach out to events@ youthenroute.ca
