Saturday 12 November 2011

Critical Mass Part ii: Creatures of the Night Ride

On halloween weekend I attended the October's critical mass halloween special, which started off the Cyclogeddon Festival, a week long festival of free events and activities to celebrate the bicycle. Unfortunately I was only able to attend critical mass, missing out on lots of interesting events including a treasure-hunt on bikes, a bike fixing workshop and bicycle polo. Critical Mass: Creatures of the Night Ride started at the usual meeting spot at St Peter's Square and concluded at Platt Fields park in Fallowfield. It was the first time I'd completed the group ride having previously abandoned the event half way through to meet non-cycling friends, and wasn't really sure what to expect. It was dark by the time we arrived at Platt Fields and riding through the huge pitch black park was a little scary but also exciting with only a stream of red bike lights directing our way. Reaching our destination was the highlight of the night as we were greeted by the Platt Field's boat house surrounded by hundreds of Chinese lanterns hanging from the fence around the lake, fairy lights twisted around the veranda and huge creature shaped lanterns danced in the night.

The event included pedal powered horror movies, a spooky performance from the bike dancing troupe The Spokes and an amazing band who sang a love song about Platt Fields Park.
Events such as this are why I love Manchester. If I can bring myself to bere the cold winter weather than I will be attending the next event on 25th November, the theme is 'colour crazy' and participants are encouraged to attend in their brightest and most clashing colours.

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