A Very Brief History of the Bike Stage

From VA to RI

What a joy to announce we’re returning to Newport Folk Festival for the fourth time. This marks the third year that we've hosted and performed on the bike stage (a stage powered by bicycle and solar energy). I thought it'd be fun to share a brief history of this idea, and connect it to the present day and the spirit of Newport.

In 2010, Jake and I became close friends and got involved with an intentional community in rural Virginia. The goal was simple; share possessions in common, grow our own food, move our lifestyle back to the land, deepen our love for each other, for the Spirit, for the world. Work to create the change we want to see. We used cars infrequently and while some of our aspirations during this post-college hippiedom were certainly naive, many of our dreams and convictions from that era have guided us and nourished us into our new chapter as a band.

Between 2011-2014, we spent several weeks each summer touring (playing music) by bike. On one hand it was an awkward Portlandia episode, and yet on the other hand it was pure bliss. I could tell stories for days about the strangers we met, and the kindness we received and shared. I remember countless nights belting out “If I Had a Hammer” with new friends, sharing a jar of peanut butter and beer. We carried a bike-powered generator on a bike trailer, and the goal was to travel and share music and use as little fossil fuels as we could. 

In 2015 we formed Illiterate Light, and in the midst of several other changes in both of our personal lives, we decided to dedicate ourselves completely to the music, which meant more cities, more touring, etc. We’ve loved every minute of this more contemporary / traditional path of being a band, but we’ve always kept a dream alive to keep pushing into new territory - not just sonically but spiritually and kinesthetically.

 In 2022 we pitched the idea of doing a pop-up show at Newport Folk Festival that would be powered by bike. The good folks at Newport were so supportive and intrigued by this idea that they entrusted us to run a pop-up stage for the entire weekend, using bike and solar energy as the primary sources of power. It is now our third year doing so, because the community of music-lovers at Newport have supported and gathered around this idea.

I should be clear, the environmental changes that are happening on our planet are so significant. Jake and I have no desire to greenwash the music industry, and we such a lot of blood from the earth as a modern rock band.  I don't think you're going to power your refrigerator with a bike (unless you’re Jeremy Bishop!), and our goal isn’t for bikes to scale up to power massive corporate music festival.

What we are interested in is how to collaborate with one another, how to think differently, how to dream, how to feel. And this little bike stage, for 3 years now, has become a place for that to happen. It's become a place for us to sweat with each other. It's become a place to use your body to co-create the music and vibrational field. It’s become a place for families to share music (which is so beautiful). We connect 6 bikes into an inverter and power several speakers that artists can sing through. Additionally we bring 8 225-watt solar panels to charge batteries to power all our FOH and additional audio equipment. Is lithium the future? Is solar the future? I don’t know. But here's what I do know. Coming together is the future. Community is the future. Dreaming is the future, experimenting and being open-minded is the future, and for us, music is the energy that drives all of that. 

It's gonna be great. See you at Newport. Jeff Gorman

(Written while subtly shaking on my laptop as we drive down a North Carolina highway)