Tell me about... Clon’s bicycle festival fun

Allison Roberts on the many benefits of cycling

How did the festival start? 

My husband Justin and I started the festival in 2011 with our friend Angie following a cycle event we organised to Inchydoney for Sustainable Clonakilty. The idea was spawned from an evening with our friends Treasa and Keith from the Kerry Bike Festival. We reckoned we could give it a go and see how it worked out, and it’s going to be 12 years this year! We’ve always been pretty DIY (Justin is a musician and I’m a small food producer) so we just came up with a schedule and circulated home-printed posters and flyers. We designed t-shirts we could sell to raise the funds to cover the expenses. In the run up to the first festival we met Jack Kelleher, who was volunteering at the direct provision centre helping kids learn to fix bikes. He jumped on board and we had a team! 

What more could be done to encourage people to cycle in West Cork? 

Show how fun and convenient bikes are for everyday life. You can get a second hand bike pretty cheaply and it can take you anywhere. It’s good for your physical and mental health, costs nothing to run, and means cleaner air and less traffic in town. It’s a win/win! Obviously if the council could invest in better infrastructure like bike paths it would make things easier, but the more of us who chose to travel by bike rather than car right now will make a big difference. 

What are the highlights of this year’s festival? 

The pop-up picnic cycle on the Saturday afternoon is going to be one for sure, with picnics prepared by chef Caitlin Ruth and an open-air concert by members of the Vespertine Quintet. The Big Bike Open Mic later that evening will be a great social event with stories shared from cycle adventurers, campaigners, builders and artists. Our birdwatch cycle will be a sunset cycle this year on the Friday and that’s always popular and I’m really looking forward to the new historical river cycle on the Sunday, a cycle along the Feagle. I could go on! All details are at clonakiltybicyclefestival.org including how to book in for the picnic and curry supper cycles.