Ride your bike to Bleach Festival 2013

Climate Wave Enterprises was welcomed back to Bleach* Festival to manage Ride your bike to Bleach Festival 2013 after a successful project last year.

Unleashing an artistic tidal wave that engulfed the Gold Coast in 2012, Bleach* Festival returned for it’s second year and runs from 22nd Feb – 3rd March 2013. “Long renowned as the global home of surf culture, the Gold Coast was the logical birthplace for Bleach*. The festival embraces the beach heritage of the Southern Gold Coast, re-imagining it in the form of a contemporary arts celebration.

With a global reach estimated in the millions and showcasing the work of more than 168 visual and performing artists in its opening year, Bleach* Festival 2013 again celebrates surf & beach culture with a series of indoor and outdoor pop up music & arts events and installations.”

The morning at Bleach* Boulevard the first day of outdoor activities saw the sun come out for the first time in a cloudy rainy few weeks it seemed. Perfect weather for an outside local community festival and the best day also for riding a bike and leaving the car at home.

Happy cyclists from all over the Gold Coast came out in the sun and were treated to free secure bike racks to leave their prized possessions so they could wander freely and enjoy the atmosphere of this wonderful arts, music lifestyle festival. Everyone that rode their bike accepted the complimentary Active Travel reusable drink bottle & Gold Coast cycling guide booklet with details of cycle network routes. Many pedestrians were disappointed that they hadn’t ridden their bikes when finding this service was available to them but were mollified when given the products for future use.

Climate Wave Enterprises provided the service for Bleach*, partnering with Gold Coast City Council Active Travel who generously donated the racks. All participants were grateful for the service and commented on the easy to use design and newness of the racks. Yes these racks were straight out of the Gold Coast City Council workshop for first time use at this event. Compliments to all who were involved in the development of this new easy to assemble system which had stability and functionality.

Numbers of users of the service was down on the previous year which could have been due to many factors including weather leading up to the event, lack of advertising and change of physical location of the racks. But this didn’t hamper the enthusiasm and encouragement not only of the cyclists but all that enquired about the project.

Comments ranged from:

“It would be great to have this service at all events on the Gold Coast”
“If I’d known you were here I would have left the car at home, it took ages to find a park”
“I left my bike at home because I don’t have a lock and now I’m exhausted from walking 2 km’s
“I’m going to get my bike out of the garage and use these cycle paths in the booklet”
“Would be great to have Bleach* Boulevard once a month”

I’d like to thank all those who used the service for lightening the carbon footprint of the event and Bleach* Festival & Gold Coast City Council Active Travel for making it possible to promote sustainable event management (SEM) practices.

After all the enthusiasm and encouragement from visitors to the festival I’m left wondering why more events aren’t welcoming and actively participating in this creative style of SEM practices.