Viva la Vivid!

Note to the general population of Sydney: The best way to travel into Vivid is indeed by bike!

Judging by the reports of traffic chaos, streets at a standstill and buses unable to service the population, all other people of Sydney suffered extreme gridlock in order to see the very beautiful Vivid festival this year. We, not only did it by bike, but we did it in style and ease! It was a successful night, and though we lost a few people due to the wet weather postponement, the people that came - ROCKED!  Enthusiastic, glowing and ready to ride, we gathered!


 

After we figured we'd caused enough of a spectacle outside Syd Uni Library, we headed off. Zoe, who made the heroic ride from Kingsford on her brompton, no doubt set records to meet us just in, and we were so thrilled. Arjanna (I hope I spelled your name right), was our first lovely random who joined us because she heard about it while riding home that night. The fun can be seen on everyone's faces- except maybe Chris (but that's because he is happy on the inside and because Nadia projected expressions on his behalf).

Combine lots of lights and night-time, bike-mounted photography and you get cool effects like ghosting, and light beams, and we have never been shy about our love for bizarre, trippy photographic effects.

  

 

 

  

Group shot of fabulousness...  

Group shot of fabulousness... now with added light effects!

We got such a great reaction from those we passed - pedestrians and cars. We had our photos snapped, were joined randomly by cyclists who just thought we looked fun and were curious about what we were up to and gawked just generally at by everyone!

 Vivid ride, check. Then off to play a gig at Oxford Arts Factory. A perfect night? Quite possibly... (check out Go/No-Go!)

I never caught your name but I am glad you caught us randomly along the way!

Nadia's Vivid face!

Mr Peter Baker - man of google wizardry and part-time pedicab rider as well as social ride organiser and random-gatherer.  Check out his upcoming Winter Solstice ride here!

And now for some of the sights of Vivid Festival 2013!

Thank you to all the lovely people who came along.  We hope to see you riding with us in the future.  We had great fun handing out the prizes and thank you for all your efforts to look amazing!  Will we do it next year?  Hells-yes!

Oh, and Kerry I know how much you love rats so I had to put your photo in the middle of this swarm of light up Vivid rats!

Wet Weather Postponing Of Vivid Bike Light Spectacular

Grr to the weather god!!  But never fear we are not cancelling the event only moving it to a day where there is less mortal danger for everyone involved.  Tonights event is now postponed to next Friday, the 7th of June.  Meeting at 7pm for a 7.30 start outside Fisher Library, Sydney University. We hope you all can still make it as we have some great goodies for prizes and because it will be AWESOME!

Vivid Pic of the Night Prize!

Hope you are all looking forward to the Vivid Bike Light Spectacular (link here to our facebook event page).  We have 3 prizes available on the night.  

1. Best Bike Decoration

2. Best High Vis Use

3. People's Favourite

Prizes include: saddle bags, backpacks, high vis wear, movie tickets, lights and more!

And an additional prize for the most Creative photo from the night.  We will hold a facebook vote for this.  If you want to send your favourite pic in from the night, just email us at featherbrigade@gmail.com, with the subject "Creative Pic Comp".  We also welcome your pics from the night to share with everyone who attended via our blog.  If you are happy to share please send your pics to us via email as "Vivid Pics" (just so we don't get confused).  Here are our lovely prizes for the photo comp:


A copy of Cyclepedia, includes more than 200 pages of beautifully photographed bicycles!  Oooh la la (think bike porn).

And a print from our Feather Brigade Artist, Laura Carey. Laura is a print based artist from Ireland and a happy-go-lucky bikelist with an extraordinary ability to carry hat stands on her bike..  This gorgeous print is titled 'The Bird in the Grass'.  (you can  see more from Laura's etsy shop here).  

Happy snapping!

Vivid Bike Light Spectacular

Guess what bikeling friends...?  Its time for the Vivid Festival again in Sydney which means we are organising our Vivid Bike Light Spectacular!  For those of you new to our Vivid ride - check out pics from our last Vivid event here: http://featherbrigade.blogspot.com.au/2011/06/vivid-night-of-lights.html

This year we are doing things a little differently.  For starters it will be a longer bike ride, starting from Sydney Uni.  We will wind along the waterfront of Glebe and Prymont before bedazzling Darling Harbour and then whizzing around Walsh Bay before heading up to the Rocks and then finding a suitable stopping point near the MCA.  There we will have a vote for "Best Decorated Bike" and "Best Decorated Person" with prizes (oooh).  After that the fun you have is up to you - check out the lights of Vivid on the festival walk (and don't forget your camera).  We will have a follow up competition on our blog for the "Most Creative Photo" from the night, so happy snapping!

Ideas for lights - think battery-powered fairy lights, glow sticks, light sticks, twirlywhirls, wheel lights, light up toys, solar powered lights.  Let your imagination take over!  Our favourite was the glow sticks taped to wheel spokes - very effective.  We found our lights at Kmart, $2 dollar shops and Ebay.

Ideas for high vis - wear your high vis in different ways, snap bands, arm bands, Tron stripes... the possiblities are endless!!   We ask that you come ready to ride on the night so we can all admire each other and then GET BIKELING!

Feel free to contact us via facebook or through the blog if you have any questions.  We look forward to seeing you there, no matter what 'type' of bikelist you are and  - SPREAD THE WORD!