They’ll be making sweet, sweet music - on an old bike saddle.
And the wind section could well be augmented by an odd handlebar trumpet.
It’s not the usual fare served up at the prestigious Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.
But organisers of this year’s event wanted to capture the spirit of the Tour de France and have confirmed plans to set up a Tour De Force Bicycle Orchestra.
They will be running workshops in Huddersfield to create a whol;e variety of weird and wacky instruments.
The Tour de Force Bicycle Orchestra is part of the Yorkshire Festival – the first-ever arts festival to precede the Tour de France in its 111-year history.
Taking place from June 18 to 21 June, the Huddersfield event will see a series of free workshops, (four school workshops, and two community workshops), working with the Levenshulme Bicycle Orchestra to sonically explore bicycle parts and create new sounds and music.
In each workshop participants will assemble their own instrument, which might include a Singing Wheel, a Bicycle Thumb Piano, Handlebar Trumpet or a Frame Harp, learn to play it and create music together to be performed on the same day.
The community workshops are open to the public and will take place on Friday, June 20, (1 – 4pm) and Saturday, June 21, (10am – 1pm) at The Packhorse Gallery, Huddersfield.
The workshops will be followed by a performance in Huddersfield town centre on June 21 at 3.30pm. There will also be school performances taking place in the town centre earlier in the week.
Sarah McWatt, of the Festival, said: “It’s a fun thing.
“No prior experience in musicianship, crafting or metalwork is needed, just enthusiasm and a sense of adventure!”
Meanwhile Music Festival officials are planning to cycle from London to Paris.
Not to be outdone by the Grand Départ, the whole festival team – Artistic Director, Graham McKenzie; Executive Producer, Nikki Cassidy; Learning and Participation Officer, Sarah McWatt; Festival Manager, Roisin Hughes and Events Assistant, Zoi Jahau – will get on their bikes in June.
The team is set to make the 247 mile journey along the Avenue Verte, a cycle pathway created between two of world’s greatest capital cities.
All sponsorship money raised will go towards funding hcmf’s new Health and Wellbeing strand which forms part of the Learning and Participation Programme.
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