"I've been waiting all my life to pedal" are the words from a little boy who stumbled upon our workshop at the Festival of Britain. It was so good to see how keen pedal were to get involved, particularly when you commonly get a case of the nerves like I.When you set up at a festival often you can get those pre-party nervousness shootig through your body. You begin thinking, "ooooo, 11am til 5pm....am I going to spend the day twiddling your thumbs or desperately spruiking your wears to every rabbit-in-headlights passersby?" That's how I thought it would be, but as with everything, I little bit of positive energy goes along way.
Two kids and their parents walked our way, attracted to the cables and electrical components spread across our floor.... that's when we pounced! We started with a bit of elementary theory about atoms and protons and neutrons, and the kids slowly start to look around for where their parents have gone. Then we give the tools and let them play with the components of a sound system their dad has specifically told them never to touch.By the time they are on the bike, other kids are coming over looking to get a chance to ride the bike. When the music kicks in on the 12V sound system, we have the whole hall's attention. We are then flat out with kids and adults building and deconstructing 12V sound systems and AC generators.
By 4pm we've done 4 or so workshops, done a couple of interviews and are counting our pennies for a pint each.
The biggest attraction of pedal power that day was mother's wanting to get a pedal generator attached to the television, making it only possible to watch TV if the kids are active. I thought the mums wanted it as a deterrent for watching TV, but then I was reminded of how much fun the kids were having pedaling. If you were watching an action adventure, pedal power might make it like being part of the movie. Pedaling for your telly would definitely, however, detract anyone from sitting and watching any old crap though. We backed up the workshop with a Cycle In Cinema, screening Peter Sellers's I'm Alright Jack. It was well attended and heaps of people keen to cycle. I was impressed with how sweaty people got but still wanted to keep going. Two kids too small to fit on the bicycles shared the load by pedaling using one leg each on either side of the bike. Very sweet indeed. Georgie was the star - she pedaled for the whole film!! Go girl!
The whole event ended, as they do, with a huge clap and one unifed shigh.
Lessons learnt - fixies with mountain bike tyres can make it really hard to pedal a cycle in cinema as you can't change gear to relive yourself from strong resistance.
