Friday 30 March 2012

Coverage in the independent...

This is in today's independent...Here

"However, if you're solely seeking thrills, then Rob Da Bank's hedonistic Bestival on the Isle of Wight (6-9 September) offers you the chance to swim your way across to the island or you can join Bike to Bestival, a group of musicians who plan to busk and cycle their way to the site (visit http://2012.bestival.net/news/bike-to-bestival to join them) for charity. Once there, you can savour Stevie Wonder headlining on Sunday night."

There's a little more about bestival in an interview with Rob Da bank

Tuesday 27 March 2012

B2B progress report

Hi there,

Lots and lots of you have been getting in touch to tell us how much you'd like to be a part of this. In time I hope that this blog can be a place for you to post your stories about how you came to want to do this, tips for cycling in an aligator costume that kind of thing.

I have written about my motivations for getting involved with group cycle rides here.

The group of us organising this are meeting to thrash out a few of the details tomorrow night and so we hope to have news/information packs for you shortly after. We've got some exciting and interesting people involved and we'll be getting them all to introduce themselves shortly.

Dominic

Sunday 18 March 2012

A Message from Warren and Dominic

A welcome message from Warren and Dominic from biketobestival on Vimeo.


A little hi from me as well (That's Dominic by the way).

Warren and I got together on Sunday to film a welcome message. It'll be a while before we all get to meet up, so we thought it might be nice to have a little chat so to speak. Luckily for us Sophie and Andrea were on hand to encourage, coach, cajole and press record whilst trying not to laugh at us.

Friday 16 March 2012

Getting to know you all

When Warren and I first started thinking about doing the bike to bestival we really had no idea how many people would think it was... well a good idea. Full stop. Over the past week or so I have been receiving a steady stream of emails from all corners of the kingdom and all comers expressing their deep and heartfelt desire to be part of this. Well quite few of you have emailed and asked for more information on how to take part.

We are in the process of negotiating, planning and blagging (still guessing at numbers as there are a few people out there who have expressed ineterst on twitter or face to face and not emailed in yet)and we will answer those questions you've asked as soon as we can.

We've been contacted by cycling enthusiasts, amateur musicians, groups of friends, artists and designers all interested in knowing more. If you guys turn out to be as varied and interesting as you all seem from your emails then we're all going to have a, quite frankly, lovely time and thus extend the whole bestival atmosphere by a full two days.

Since we haven't finalised details yet, I thought I'd start writing here and let you know stuff as and when I can. The idea is that once everyone who is going is signed up we can use this blog to share training stories, fancy dress plans, musical discoveries and such the like with each other in the run up to the main event.

Take care and I hope to be speaking to all of you again soon.

Monday 5 March 2012

Welcome to Bike to Bestival

Where to begin? Well, probably first off, a really warm welcome to Bike to Bestival – and another hugely warm welcome to the B2B blog. If you’re keen on getting involved (and why wouldn’t you be?) this is the place to pour forth your thoughts, absurdist trains of bike-related thoughts and – maybe most importantly – your ideas. At the moment what we have is a rough (but admittedly brilliant) plan – to cycle from London to the Isle of Wight (via Southampton) over two days, stopping half way to pitch our tents, knock out some tunes and (obviously) have a brew or two…



It’s going to be a fantastic way to kick off the Bestival experience and to feel justly smug when you arrive, as fit as a darned fiddle (any violin players?) – and knowing that you haven’t chugged out any noxious fumes to get there. But your help in all this would be great. Over the coming weeks, we’ll be looking at (and probably trying out) the best routes, starting to research a venue for us all to pitch up at (possibly somewhere around Guildford) and ironing out myriad other little bits and pieces to make B2B a really cracking, memorable experience. The good people at Bestival (particularly the lovely Matt) are really pitching in – but what about you? Cycled the route before? Know any decent campsites/pubs/farmers who may want to accommodate us? Got any freewheeling notions that you think might be a blast? Do let us know.
The idea for B2B has been kicking around for a little while now, mostly through a few pub chats (isn’t that how all good things start?) with my old mate Duncan, who’s been involved with Bestival from the beginning. Last summer, myself and a group of six others (collectively known as Buskers on Bikes) took on the Land’s End to John O’Groats bike ride, but as a travelling band. We peeled ourselves of our saddles at the end of each day and headed to local pubs to belt out some tunes and raise money for Cancer Research. It was an incredible shebang – so how could we not take on the B2B challenge?
It’s probably worth saying at this point that I’m not a cycling expert, despite the ridiculously long trip last year – and neither do you have to be. You’ll need a road-worthy bike, of course, but most importantly oodles of enthusiasm – and the will to train up a bit (help with this will be forthcoming)…
So, clearly, there’s loads of things to fill you in on, and more info will be heading your way (transport to lug the equipment, music ideas etc etc) So if you're up for hitting the road with us, let us know by dropping us a line at biketobestival@bestival.net - and we'll start putting a list of likely candidates together
So sign up. Pump up your tyres. Get on your bikes… and Bike to blummin’ Bestival.
Warren