Bicycles, live music and sustainability have always been important to the Eugene community. On Saturday, the University’s Bike Loan Program will bring all three elements together to create a day of human-powered concerts that will use no outside electrical power.
“We’re going to be helping the Willamette Valley Music Festival generate power for the stage all day long,” said Dave Villalobos, coordinator of the Bike Music Festival.
Saturday marks the 40th anniversary of the Willamette Valley Music Festival, which will feature more than 30 free concerts sponsored by the Cultural Forum. The WVMF will last from 10 a.m. to midnight in the EMU Amphitheater. During the Bike Music Festival, audience members will generate electricity for the WVMF performers using the bike program’s pedal-powered generator.
“The Bike Music Festival has a very bike-y feel to it,” Bike Loan Program coordinator Briana Orr said. “We’re going to have organizations tabling from different bike organizations throughout the community and on campus, and we’re going to have free bike repairs.”
Last year, bicycle-powered band the Ginger Ninjas provided the equipment needed for the University’s first Bike Music Festival. For this year’s festival, the Bike Loan Program bought the equipment using a grant from Lane County Tourism, coupled with support from EWEB, the University Student Sustainability Fund and several additional community businesses.
The bicycle power generation system that will be used at the Bike Music Festival is called the Biker Bar. It consists of two bicycles with rear hubs that can serve as a generator or an engine. There is also a trailer that allows seven or eight ordinary bicycles to be attached to a generator. A 6-foot-tall pedometer will display how much power the cyclists are producing, and an EWEB solar rover will provide backup power when necessary.
“By making the whole event off the grid, I think it’s a really strong statement to the University of Oregon’s commitment to sustainability and our program’s commitment to sustainability,” Orr said.
Paul Freedman, founder of Rock the Bike, designed the Biker Bar. Rock the Bike promotes cultural displays of bike culture in music, education and entertainment.
Freedman will lead a Pedal Power workshop in Agate Hall Friday at 7 p.m. to explain how the bicycle power generation system works.
Villalobos said he’s already been fielding calls from local groups interested in using the new equipment for their events, and he hopes the generation system will become a resource for the Eugene community.
“The beautiful part about this system is that it’s going to be available for future events,” Villalobos said. “We could take this system and have a band play at a park or in a field. The possibilities are endless. It really comes down to the human power of the system.”
Orr said the bicycle generators can be used to power anything that needs to be plugged in, and the system can be adjusted to suit different energy needs.
On Saturday at 4 p.m., the Bike Music Festival will end with a live on-bike performance. Musicians will take off from the EMU Amphitheater and play while biking through campus, followed by audience members on their bikes. Last year, they accomplished this by riding on the back of bicycles while playing their instruments.
Villalobos and Orr agreed that the audience participation sets the Bike Music Festival apart from other concerts.
“The festival tears down those walls between the folks that are watching the band and the musicians. It really creates this unique experience where the band is dependent on participants,” Villalobos said.
Orr, who has been working on the Bike Music Festival for the past year, added that generating bicycle power gives people a way to be sustainable and to be a part of the concert.
“There are the people who are making the music with their instruments, and then there are people who are making the music with their legs,” Orr said.
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