On Your Bike 2012

Charity Shop DJ working in

partnership with Derby LIVE

A Cultural Olympiad Project for Derby

Charity Shop DJ collaborated with Derby LIVE to present "On Your Bike," a series of three free outdoor events held in Derby Market Place. The grand finale, known as the Pedal Powered Party, was conceived and produced by Charity Shop DJ.

The project was funded by the Cultural Olympiad, the Legacy Trust, Derby LIVE, Derby City Council and Derby University.

The Pedal Powered Party

Held on 9 September 2012, the Pedal Powered Party was a large and ambitious event that embodied themes of community empowerment and interdependence. These themes were brought to life through a cycle-powered generator system that supplied energy to the sound equipment on stage in Derby Market Place.

Charity Shop DJ produced this culminating event, which showcased a diverse array of performances spread across three stages. They also managed the bike generator system, which had been utilised in the two preceding "On Your Bike" events on 18 and 25 August.

The Shed

The Pedal Powered Party featured live bands, DJs, street performers, and theatre groups. Members of Derby’s diverse communities participated by playing their chosen music, mentored by Charity Shop DJ’s resident DJs—all powered by community members pedaling bikes to keep the music alive.

The Main Stage hosted live bands, including Derby’s own Trinity Band, and was headlined by the UK’s leading Queen tribute band, QEII.

The Village Green transformed into a flamboyant village fête, featuring local street performers, acoustic musicians, theatre, and dance groups.

"The Shed," possibly the smallest venue in Derbyshire, was an actual garden shed that hosted acoustic sessions, including a massed choir of 80 members.

Charity Shop DJ’s remit was:

a) To provide the concept and communicate the ethos of the finale event

b) To produce the finale event

c) To manage the provision of the bike generator and the community interdependence link between the three events

d) To ensure that the spirit of the Paralympics and Accessibility was reflected in the finale event

e) To manage the project’s legacy

The Bikes

The Pedal Powered Party emphasised sustainable power and communities, one group literally empowered the performance of another, with no act possible without collective input.

To manage the bike generator system, Charity Shop DJ partnered with Dave Clasby of Sustrans, who facilitated and delivered this crucial component. The generators, provided by Electric Pedals—experts in the field and featured in the BBC programme "Bang Goes The Theory: Human Power Station", served as both literal and metaphorical links throughout the events.

On 2 and 3 June, two workshops were held at Derby Silk Mill to build a four-bike generator system intended as a permanent legacy in Derby. Led by Dave Clasby, twenty volunteers completed the workshops conducted by Electric Pedals.

The generator was first tested on 3 June at a free party at the Silk Mill—a well-attended and vibrant event powered entirely by bikes.

Two mini-events on 18 and 25 August featured the four-bike generator as a sideshow, maintaining the theme of community interdependence. Visitors to the Market Place had the opportunity to learn about the bike generators and try them out.

For the 9 September Pedal Powered Party, 32 additional generators were hired from Electric Pedals to power the music and enhance the spectacle, totalling 37 generators. This included 9 kids’ bikes, 1 wheelchair, and 2 hand-cranked bikes.

Programming the Pedal Powered Party

The Pedal Powered Party mashed up musical genres and performance styles across the site, ranging from a Queen tribute band on the Main Stage to a brass band on the Village Green.

Our mission was to mix it up a bit, getting people to see acts which they might not otherwise get to see, a mutual mixing up of bands and their audiences.

The party vibe invited unselfconscious and good natured participation and attracted a diverse audience of different age groups and different backgrounds. The event was delivered from within Derby and Derbyshire, using the budget available to spend amongst Derby and Derbyshire artists and businesses

Taking Part

205 artists and performers took part across the site and its 3 stages, and around 5000 people joined in a range of activities, including bunting and medal making, hula hooping, a Shakespearean Workout, riddle sessions, and, of course, pedalling the bikes. Some pedallers were presented with medals made in the workshops. 72 people shared their musical memories by joining the World Record Holders Gallery

The Main Stage hosted the best in live bands, including Baby People’s David Gibb, bluegrass band Grassoline, Kaleidoscope Choir, Trinity Band and QE2. The Village Green was powered solely by five bikes and featured theatre, performance, a brass band and acoustic sets. It was programmed and hosted by Derby’s own ‘MisAchivement’, Antoinette Burchill. The Shed has been described as an intense experience for both performer and audience due to its close confines – and became a very real participatory experience as both sides literally came face to face with each other.

Pedal Power and Community Interdependence

The bike generators were a literal and metaphorical motif to illustrate the interdependence between Derby’s communities, businesses and organisations.

In the months preceding the event, we launched an appeal for ‘Pedal Power’, and booked out ‘pedal time’ to Derby-based businesses, charities, and community organisations. On the day the bikes were populated by teams from Hewlett Packard (25 people), legal company Freeth Cartwright (5 people), Domino’s Pizza (5 people), the Cast Trust charity (7 people), Community Action Derby (8 people), the Derby Socialist Workers Party (5 people), Cycle Derby (20 people), and the Derby Braves American Football Team (4 people). Lisa Higginbottom Mayor of Derby also gave her pedal power. Big thanks to all of you for powering the party!

There were 25 adult bikes, 9 kids bikes, 1 wheel chair bike, 2 hand cranked bike. 5 of the adult bikes were on the Village Green. The bikes were permanently 100% occupied. ‘Walk-on’ audience members and pre-booked teams (as above) comprised the numbers. Nearly 1000 people pedalled and powered the performances of 205 artists.

Total constant power delivery: approx 1480 Watts or 1.4 kilowatt. Over four hours that’s the equivalent of 5920 Watt-hours or 5.9 Kilowatt-hours.
This is about the same energy used by a family house in a day

Accessibility

We wanted to provide, as far as we were able, an environment where everyone felt comfortable and were able to participate if they wanted to.

Accessibility was fundamental to the event and underpinned its planning. Derby City Council Diversity Officer, Ann Webster and the Disability Syndicate were involved from the outset in an advisory capacity. Both Ann and the Disability Syndicate actually became performers themselves at the event, with Ann DJing at the Launch event at the Silk Mill and young people from the Disability Syndicate DJing on the 9 Sept.

Electric Pedals undertook successful feasibility studies and were able to provide 1 wheelchair bike generator and 2 hand-cranked bike generators. These were constantly in use throughout the event and energetically demonstrated by the Derby Wheelblazers wheelchair basketball team.

Pedal Powered Press Day. With Andy and the Mayor on the decks. The Mayor, otherwise known as Lisa Higginbottom, played 'State of Independence' by Donna Summer.

Ann Webster, Diversity Officer with Derby City Council played 'Bicycle Race' by Queen.

Setting things in Motion

It was a fantastic party, and we all had a great time. And it doesn’t stop here.

The Pedal Powered Party set things in motion, which will carry on long after the astroturf has been rolled up.

The party saw the birth of the Hubbub Theatre Company, a performance group with a mixed background of abilities, led by Jen Sumner (Story Moves). They performed a piece specially commissioned for the event, with the aid of an Arts Council England ‘Grant for the Arts’ award, tangible benefits of which were drawn into the ‘On Your Bike’ project. The company also used their ‘Clown Powered Vehicle’ to convey Mayor of Derby Lisa Higginbottom and her consort, Rory Slater to unveil a new Olympic Milestone for Derby.

And the story continues as we look to the future:

The four-bike generator system has stayed in Derby and has been busy already.

It has already been used at two events on 19 and 20 September at the Derbyshire Eco Centre, which were co-produced by young people from Derbyshire children’s homes as part of the Wirksworth Festival.

The 2 and 3 June workshops were attended by twenty volunteers who will take their knowledge into their organisations/ workplace.

The Pedal Powered Party provided a comfortable space for other events to happen, including the unveiling of Derby’s Olympic Milestone, which was successfully integrated into the event’s programming, and which now stands outside Quad as a permanent reminder of a happy Olympic summer.

More Images from Electric Pedals

More Images from the Event

On Your Bike Launched at Derby Silk Mill: 3 June 2012

Over the weekend of 2 & 3 June, working with Dave Clasby (Sustrans), Electric Pedals, and Antoinette Burchill, a team of 20 volunteers built a four-bike generator system in Derby’s Silk Mill. This generator system is the On Your Bike cultural legacy – and is now available for schools and community groups to power their events and activities.

On 3 June, we held an experimental Pedal Powered Party at the Silk Mill to test out the capacity of the bike generator kit. We disconnected ourselves from the national grid, plugged into the bikes - and party guests pedalled hard to power a line-up of fine DJs, who gave their time voluntarily. Big thanks to:

Shookz, Mark Cunliffe, Dr Matt, Jonezy, Sinfonia ViVA, Holy Smokes! , sinfonia ViVA, Perry Jackson, and Soesmix Selecta

Testimonials

"Another Pedal Powered Party .... Please !!""Great on all counts. Fantastic! Highly successful event.""Saw lots of acts and community groups I would not have heard of otherwise. Really enjoyed performing ourselves.""Awesome event, well done! EVERYONE I spoke to said they really enjoyed themselves and it brought out an absolutely wonderful feeling of community! :) thankyou xxx""We had a great time yesterday. My lad was on the bikes pretty much non-stop Look forward to doing it again soon!""A truly inspiring day fuelled by people and pedal power - Again again! :-)""It was a brilliant event for the city which brought people from all walks of life together."

"Charity Shop DJ are legends for bringing Derby together!""On behalf of QEII, a massive thank you for having and looking after us yesterday at The Pedal Powered Party. We had a great day and it was a pleasure to share a stage with such amazing talent, not forgetting the Pedalers who kept the whole day Rocking!! Keep up the good work and hopefully we'll get to work together again soon!!!""I want to thank you for making Sunday such a wonderful experience, the atmosphere in the Market Square was unbelievable and I do not know of anyone who did not enjoy themselves." - Paul Pegg, Councillor for Mackworth Ward"Was great to see so many people of all ages from different cultures all engaging and interacting to achieve a common goal! To keep the party going. Loved it!""It was a great way to bring a diverse community together to actually work together on something tangible with such clear mutual benefit"

"It brought Derby people and visitors together.""It showed that cycling can be sexy and fun, that we take energy for granted but that you really have to work hard to produce it.""Bought home important messages about conserving energy resources whilst giving people the opportunity at a time when times are difficult for many.""The concept was so important and such a great, fun way to introduce the idea of sustainability in a practical easy way.""Fantastic fun, diverse crowd, people helping to make it work not just expecting others to do it all.""Great atmosphere. Great opportunity for us to perform. Lots of interesting acts.""Being from a disability group its quite rare to be incorporated so seamless into a 'mainstream' event."