This Saturday, August 22, the BMF crew rolls into Seattle! Led by the Ginger Ninjas and the Pleasant Revolution Tour, BMFers will show Seattle how to pedal their way to musical bliss!

Tour Route & Lineup for Seattle:

9am Early Ride: Live On Bike Music ride to Waterfront Park starting at Delridge Playfield

10am Waterfront Park : Holly Phillips – Julia Massey – James Kennedy – Stitchcraft – Susan Harper – Bahia

2pm Afternoon cruise with Live On Bike music

3pm Denny Park : Blue 55 – Bend – Nettle Honey – Aeolian

6pm Ride to Space Needle

7-8:30pm Seattle Center Movies at the Mural : The Ginger Ninja – Cello Joe – Bear Dyken

9pm Evening ride to evening concert

9:30pm Evening concert Secret Location: Goose Vargis – The Pressure

BMF Seattle needs volunteers. Email seattlebicyclemusicfestival@gmail.com to get involved!
Visit www.seattlebicyclemusicfestival.com for more info on all stops on the tour.

Video from Rock the Bike’s Pedal Power stage at Maker Faire this year. The sound system we’ll be using at Saturday’s BMF is even better.

Nice clips of SHAKE YOUR PEACE! performing.

The Ginger Ninjas, just back from an epic 5000 mile bicycle tour to Mexico, got yet another chance to test out their sound system and rock festival-goers at this weekend’s Harmony Festival in Santa Rosa. With 4 pedal-power generating bicycles, there was enough clean, clear audio power to get over 100 people dancing. Musical highlights included Cipes and the People, and Los Ginger Ninjas.

The weekend was a good chance to work out any last kinks in the human power system before the Bicycle Music Festival. While there was a little troubleshooting to do on Sunday morning after Saturday night’s jam session, the system didn’t let fans down and was loud enough to have 8-piece bands rock out with a full drum set. You really don’t want to have to ask a drummer to play softly because the mains don’t have enough power to bring other instruments and vocals up to their level. It’s much better when a drummer can play out, and you can adjust the other instruments accordingly.

Fortunately the Ginger Ninjas’ sound system has that much power and more! We are psyched and grateful that they’ll be setting up the Human Power at this year’s BMF!

We had 11 bands over two days at last weekend’s Maker Faire. We had three pedal power bikes powering two 400-watt JBL powered speakers. Unlike the ones the Ginger Ninjas took to Mexico, these speakers were powered by traditional amplifiers, not digital amps. So the three pedal power bikes were barely enough. We couldn’t really have kids pedal one of the three, because they just didn’t put out enough power. And you really can’t kick a kid off a bicycle and feel good about yourself at the end of the night. So we said “adults only.” Fortunately for this year’s BMF, it’s looking like we’ll have the Ginger Ninjas in effect, with their Pleasant Revolution sound system, road-tested after 5 months through Mexico.

Anyway, there are some great shots from the Faire on Flickr. Hope you dig it.