The Newport Folk Festival, known for creating electrifying musical moments — the most famous being Bob Dylan's decision to plug in his guitar in 1965 — this weekend has a small outer stage that is being powered in part by festival-goers on stationary bicycles.
Folk_Festival-Bicycle_Stage_35355 Madi Diaz, right, performs at the Newport Folk Festival's bike stage, powered in part by festivalgoers on stationary bicycles, left, Friday, July 22, 2022, in Newport, R.I. (AP Photo/Pat Eaton-Robb)
AP Photo/Pat Eaton-Robb
Folk_Festival-Bicycle_Stage_99519 Madi Diaz performs on the Newport Folk Festival's bike stage, powered in part by festivalgoers on stationary bicycles shown next to the stage, Friday, July 22, 2022, in Newport, R.I. (AP Photo/Pat Eaton-Robb)
AP Photo/Pat Eaton-Robb
Folk_Festival-Bicycle_Stage_95171 Jake Cochran, left, from the band Illiterate Light, supervises festivalgoers on station bikes used to power the Bike Stage at the Newport Folk Festival, Friday, July 22, 2022, in Newport, R.I. (AP Photo/Pat Eaton-Robb)
NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) — The Newport Folk Festival is known for creating electrifying musical moments, and this weekend it is powering a small stage in part by festival-goers on stationary bikes. The Rhode Island festival is famously known for Bob Dylan’s decision to plug in his guitar in 1965. Now decades later, the Bike Stage is the brainchild of the band Illiterate Light, an environmentally conscious indie rock duo from Virginia. The band has partnered with a company called Rock the Bike to create a pedal-powered sound system, which they have been using at small club shows. Frontman Jeff Gorman said Newport’s “Bike Stage” is the first time the system has been tried at a festival.
