World Naked Bike Ride 2012: Manchester

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Naked cyclists gathered at All Saints Park in Manchester on Friday 1 June 2012 for the city's 7th World Naked Bike Ride. Then they spent an hour zipping around the city centre to the delight of onlookers, many of whom had just finished work before the Diamond Jubilee bank holiday.

It's an environmental protest to raise awareness about oil dependency. But also a celebration of the bicycle and the body and intended to highlight the vulnerability of the cyclist in traffic.

This year the riders didn't have an escort from the police, but volunteer marshalls kept everyone safe.

The World Naked Bike Ride takes place in 70 cities in 20 countries worldwide.

This year's video is short and (hopefully) sweet! Unfortunately it had to be shot on Hi8 as the DV camcorder broke just before and there was no cash to buy a new one. See my 2008 coverage for an 8-minute video which includes interviews with the riders and public.

NOTE: 2012 also turned out to be my last year making a video or attending. After the 2012 event some unpleasant and rather aggressive comments about photographers were made by a couple of the male riders in the online group and I noted that I was being shouted at during the event too as some males cycled past. Considering the sincere effort I had made to promote this event in Manchester over the years, by making videos, I strongly objected to being labeled as some kind of pervert! So that was that.

The 2011 video can be found here.

Duration: 1 mins 15 secs

Related pages

* Manchester Police harrass World Naked Bike Riders (14 June 2009).

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