Skerries Cycling Festival 2021: On Yer Bike!

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Let’s celebrate cycling!
Skerries Cycling Festival 22nd August

A festival to celebrate the Freedom Machine! 

Fingal County Council logo

The good news: There will be a one-day Skerries Cycling Festival, even though the four-weekend Skerries Summer Festival had to be cancelled for 2021.
Skerries Cycling Initiative (SCI), part of Skerries Community Association, with support from Fingal County Council and Skerries Mills, is holding its first ever cycling festival and invites you invites you to come along.

The Skerries Cycling Festival will be all about encouraging people to integrate more active travel into their daily lives so that they can enjoy the fun and other benefits of cycling. 

On Your Bike! Two Guided Cycles 

Kick Sunday 22 August off with a guided cycle. Both starting at 10.30 a.m. from Skerries Mills, with sign-on there from10 a.m.
No need to pre-register, just be there in good time to sign on.

Fun Cycle (5 km approx.starting and finishing at Skerries Mills):

All cyclists are welcome on the Fun Cycle.
Note: All children must be accompanied by a responsible adult.
Everyone’s bikes must be in roadworthy condition. 
That includes working brakes, gears, tyre pressure and appropriate saddle height. 
The SCI will provide stewards to assist the riders in getting through junctions along the way.

Social Cycle (25km approx. starting and finishing at Skerries Mills):

bike in Skerries

This is for reasonably confident and competent cyclists.
Please note that there is some hill-climbing involved so gears are advisable and bike must be in roadworthy condition. 
That includes working brakes, gears, tyre pressure and appropriate saddle height. 

Both groups should be back in Skerries Mills within two hours of setting off.

Why not lunch at Skerries Mills Café, or bring a packed lunch and have a picnic while waiting for the afternoon events to kick off?

Afternoon events: Sun 22 Aug, 2-5 p.m.

Please bring your masks and observe physical distancing while visiting the events. We will keep an eye on the numbers and will ensure that all Covid 19 regulations are complied with.

  • Visit our Courtyard gazebo for info on what is happening with local cycling groups.
  • Free bike checks – Wondering what’s needed to get you back on the bike? Bring it along and find out how to get it running smoothly and safely again.
  • Cycling without age –  A  Cycling Without Age Trishaw -see pic- will be on display in the courtyard. This one is on loan from Fingal County Council  but a similar one will be coming to Skerries permanently in September. Would you like to know more? Visit the Cycling Without Age website, or see what Fingal are doing re Cycling Without Age on the Fingal County Council Cycling Without Age page.
  • 3 p.m. beside Skerries Mills carpark: “Show and Tell:” If you have a bike/trike that you are attached to bring it along and share with others what that bike means to you.
    We would especially love to see some non-standard cycles (tricycles, unicycles, tandems, recumbents, handcycles) on show and may even have a prize for the “Best Dressed Cycle and Rider”… E- bikes will be on show and local owners of cargo bikes and e-bikes or any other special bikes are invited to show off, and tell us all about, their machines.
trishaw
  • 4 p.m. beside Skerries Mills carpark: Slow Bicycle Race. This will be fun to watch or even compete in. You can use your own bike, provided it is not a fixie. 
  • 5 p.m., Courtyard: Round the world on a bike!  Dermot Higgins will give a 30 minute presentation/talk about his round the world cycling trip in 2017/2018.  Due to Covid restrictions this will be ticketed and numbers will be limited. Those present will be required to observe 1 metre social distancing during presentation. Reserve your ticket here!
Reserve your ticket soon for this rare opportunity to hear Dermot speak about his round-the-world cycle!

And to get yourself in the mood for the Skerries Cycling Festival…

Have you ever asked yourself why we cycle? Why others cycle? Or even, why the people who belong to one of the most cyclistic (if that is a word, as a certain Ross O’Carroll-Kelly might wonder) nations on Earth, namely the Dutch, cycle? And how did they ever get all those cycle paths?

Well, you don’t have to wait until the 22nd to find out. Just watch the trailer for the documentary “Why we cycle” on YouTube, Trailer … or watch another documentary on how the Dutch got their cycle paths!

Keep safe, keep cycling, it’s not just for the birds…

bird on a bike

Michael McKenna, Secretary, Skerries Cycling Initiative.
Email skerriescycling@gmail.com