5 nights of open air pedal powered cinema in Peterborough!

This was a series of free, unique, open-air pedal-powered cinema screenings which took place from Tuesday to Saturday evening at various locations across Peterborough. The cinemas were part of a broader programme of events organised by Travelchoice (Peterborough Council's sustainable transport department) which engaged with the people of Peterborough, encouraging them to use alternative forms of transportation such as buses, bicycles, space hoppers .. anything but a car!

The films shown included favourites such as ‘Up’, ‘Toy Story’ and ‘Jurassic Park’.  It was a real family friendly event with people bringing blankets and even picnics with them.

We encouraged people to try pedalling during the film (on both adult and child bicycles), but not everyone had to cycle, many people were quite happy to sit and enjoy the film and watch others put the power in!

The Big Cycle Cinema used electricity generated entirely from the audience who were pedaling ordinary cycles attached to specially adapted generators to power all of the equipment. There were absolutely no batteries, so if the audience stopped pedalling, then the film stopped..  Luckily there was no shortage of volunteers.

Richard Jones from Peterborough Council's Travelchoice said: "We thought the pedal powered cinema was a fantastic attribute to Travelchoice Week, it provided us with a captive audience to whom we could deliver our message, promoted cycling to families and local communities, and most importantly - re-engaged a lot of people with cycling in a fun way. Electric Pedals were a pleasure to work with, and the energy and enthusiasm with which your team approached each cinema helped to make it a real success."