The World Naked Bike Ride, an annual event designed to promote healthy body image and reduce dependency on cars, returns to Manchester next month.
Setting off from All Saint’s Park on June 12, people will be allowed to hang out as bare as they please enjoying music, body painting and other activities before cycling through the city.
Costumes are heavily encouraged with the suggestion being to go all out, the more colourful and eye-catching the better.
Andrew Fisher, an organiser for this year’s bike ride, said: “Its aim is to highlight the vulnerability of cyclists, protest against oil dependency, car culture, promote body acceptance and most of all have a really good time.”
“You don’t have to be naked to go, but feel free to bare as much as you dare, or paint yourself head to tail.”
Some riders take part to raise money for charity, often painting their body in the charity colours or slogans.
The idea behind cyclists riding nude is to express the vulnerability of pedallers on city streets and the campaigners say the main aim is to get new bike safety laws introduced to protect cyclists.
Zygmunt Wysocki, another organiser for the event, said: “It’s important to raise awareness of cycling, as it should not a marginalised thing.
“Cycling naked is the best way to say ‘look I’m here’ take notice of me.”
The 32-year-old who is also co-creator of Coffee Crank, an ethically-sourced coffee retailer selling by bicycle in Manchester.
He said: “I would also like to use public roads and feel safe to do so but at the moment it’s still not completely possible to feel safe on a bike in Manchester or other cities in the UK and across the Globe.”
This will be the ninth year that the event has come to Manchester, with the event usually gathering around 100 cyclists.
Police have approved the event for the past nine years as nudity itself is not an offence, there have been no arrests made at WNBR events.
Events also take place in many other English cities including London, Sheffield, Brighton, as well as many countries around the globe throughout the month of June.
Zygmunt said: “Manchester is a very compact city, a very ‘cyclable’ city, and if only the authorities realised how great it could become and how the potential of the city as a cycling city could thrive. That would be amazing.”
The ride kicks off at 6pm.
Picture courtesy of Whalesense, with thanks.
