The Newport Folk Festival in the USA features a small outdoor stage operated in part by festival-goers on bicycles.
The Bike Stage is the brainchild of the band Illiterate Light, an environmentally conscious Virginia indie rock duo who teamed up with Rock the Bike company to create a pedal-powered sound system. They had previously used it at small club concerts.
The stage is equipped with solar panels that provide most of the power for the amps and other gear, with the bikes providing the rest.
And it’s worth the sweat: fans take turns pedaling for about five minutes during the 20-minute sets in return for complimentary iced tea and a front-row view of the show.
The Newport Folk Festival is an annual folk music festival first held in Rhode Island in 1959.
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