Pedal power

‘It’s so much fun to just hop on your bike, and there is such a feeling of community and empowerment riding your bicycle through the city with that many other people,” gushed Danielle Baxter, who will soon gear up to volunteer for the Chico Bicycle Music Festival (CBMF).

The free, annual event—featuring a completely pedal-powered mobile concert—is designed as a great day outside while sidestepping the fossil fuel industry. Its organizers understand that the human race’s climate catastrophe can be difficult for many to comprehend, much less combat, so the goal is to create an accessible and fun event that shows how bicycling helps make a difference.

“People think of sustainability and environmentalism as something that may cause you to miss out on certain pleasures of life,” Baxter explained. “This event shows that it doesn’t have to be that way. It can be a super-rad time, while directly resisting a problem that seems so huge.”

“We can still have fun and enjoy our lives without burning excessive fossil fuels. The festival is a way for people to realize the possibilities of sustainable energy,” added CBMF organizing partner Scott Grist.

Baxter and Grist realized the potential of that power in 2016, after completing a bicycle tour from Chico to the Canadian border, a journey of about 900 miles. In Eugene, Ore., they saw Bicicletas por la Paz (Bicycles for Peace) perform. The Oakland-based band travels to gigs on bicycles to share pedal-powered politics and dance music. That bike tour and musical experience helped turn Baxter and Grist on to the bicycle music festival already happening in their own community.

The CBMF was started in 2008 by Samantha Zangrilli and Cheetah Tchudi, who worked at GRUB CSA Farm at the time and currently operate TurkeyTail Farm. After being the lead organizer for several years, Zangrilli was ready to pass the reins last year and began looking for a local group to take the lead. Grist knew Zangrilli from GRUB and had become co-chair of the Butte Environmental Council’s board in 2017. To him, it made perfect sense to shepherd the festival under the environmental advocacy group’s umbrella, working with the veteran volunteers who have been helping over the last decade.

This year’s festival takes place on June 8 and includes a packed lineup of local talent. Soulful singer Nikki Sierra will kick off the progressive concert in the parking lot at Third and Flume streets, followed by a ride into Bidwell Park while Thunder Lump performs live from the back of a pedicab. At Cedar Grove, singer/songwriters Bran Crown and Kyle Williams will perform as a crew of cyclists power the sound system through an ingenious generator hooked up to stationary bikes.

Back on the road, the caravan will travel to the End of Normal (2500 Estes Road), serenaded by Cameron Ford en route on the pedicab “stage.” At that final location, attendees will find food trucks, beer from Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., and water misters to help cool down. Ants in My Eyes Johnson, Mookatite, Triple Tree, Bungo and the Pat Hull Band will perform through the bike-powered system, and guests are invited to sprawl out on the lawn or dance the evening away.

Artists Quinn Troster and Ava Moon have lent their talents to the cause, creating artwork to promote the event, and muralist Molly Keen is making a banner to carry along on the ride.

Raffles include a new bike from Greenline Cycles and bicycle-inspired furniture by Ron Toppi (Chico Bikesmith), and attendees can take part in bike limbo and ride unique, hand-built bicycles through the festival grounds. Pedal Press screen printing will ride along, creating custom T-shirts to memorialize the event.

The main focus is to open people’s imagination to the possibilities of what they can do with a minimal carbon footprint, and all funds raised through the festival go toward BEC’s environmental advocacy.

“It has to do with resisting fossil fuels. It’s really a radical movement, at its heart,” said Baxter, who considers herself a direct action environmentalist. “We don’t need electricity to have a badass time. We can use our legs, we can use bicycles. There is a lot of empowerment that comes from powering a concert with your legs.”

Participants may not necessarily be thinking about the environment as they pedal through town, enjoying music with their friends, but Grist hopes that they do and put that into action by donating to or volunteering with BEC.

“This is an environmental nonprofit that has been in Butte County for over 43 years,” Grist said. “BEC has been at the forefront of all environmental issues in this area. Their mission is to protect the land, air and water of Butte County, and I’d love for the Bicycle Music Festival and BEC to be synonymous. This is a great organization.”