The Edmonton mountain biking community is robust, active and sometimes, a bit intimidating. In the river valley, pedal bikers are to pedestrians what motor vehicles are to pedal bikers on city streets — disturbingly fast, with a tendency to get reckless. And if you’ve ever walked by a previous EMBFest, you probably saw Queen Elizabeth Park covered in spandex-clad people with large calves riding robotic-looking bikes in ways that make you concerned for their safety and thought: Perhaps this is one Edmonton festival that’s not for me.
Adam Luciuk disagrees. He’s the founder of the fest and says “the goal was to create something different for the community, a different type of festival that was more activity based, where we give people stuff to do and to experience.” Of course, if you are an avid rider, there are time trials, races and bike shop vendors offering their newest wheel-based wares. If you’re more of a leisurely rider, you can demo higher-end bikes, take an educational seminar or sign up for a Food Bike Tour to different donut shops around town to recoup those precious calories.
But even if you don’t own or have never even ridden a bike, this fest’s for you. “There’s gonna be a beer garden, food trucks, live music, a bike show and shine, a photo contest, and we have adult-sized Big Wheel trikes for people to ride. There’s the bike rodeo, where people can see how far they can throw a bike, and bike jousting, where you have a whipped cream pie and you ride at an opposing rider and try to hit them in the face.”
If you want to just show up and observe the bike-and-pie-based activities, feel free — literally. If you want to take part in any or all of them, it’s $10 for an activity pass, which goes toward future events put on by EMBFest Events Society. “We have specific things for different riders on each day, but really, anybody of any age or ability could show up on any day and have something fun to do.”
See what’s rolling this weekend at Queen Elizabeth Park.
