Dandelion Cubes: a miniature gardens creative project to visit Forres on Scottish bike tour
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
THE Dandelion Cubes Bike Tour begins this week and will visit Forres later this month.
The fleet of e-bikes carrying the miniature vertical farms will visit Forres as part of their Scotland-wide tour.
The initiative, commissioned by Event Scotland and funded by the Scottish Government is part of the UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK project and will travel across Scotland to encourage people to 'Sow, Grow and Share' music, food, ideas and stories.
Four custom-made, electrically-assisted bikes – each carrying a growing cube – forms part of Dandelion, a major creative programme demonstrating the power of collective action through an ambitious grow-your-own initiative which aims to reach hundreds of thousands of people.
Neil Butler, director of festivals and events at Dandelion, said the tour was a great way to share Dandelion's message and reach people in locations throughout Scotland.
He said: "The bikes will be travelling all over the country so we’d love to see people coming along to witness some of the magic, get seeds to grow your own at home and hear more about our upcoming Harvest celebrations."
Throughout August, the Cubes Bike Tour will visit 10 towns and cities, stopping at school playgrounds, green spaces, town centres, and Dandelion’s Unexpected Gardens, among other locations.
The team set off from Edinburgh on Wednesday and will also give away free seeds to encourage people to grow their own food.
The tour will visit Forres on Tuesday 23 August with a stop at the Market Square at 1pm and Grant Park at 7pm.
The touring 1m x 1m Cubes of Perpetual Light are designed to foster accelerated plant growing and have been developed to grow hundreds of seedlings under LED light, combining design craft, traditional horticultural expertise and technological innovation.
At each stop, the cubes will play new music specially commissioned for Dandelion by Scottish and international artists inspired by the natural world.
Paul Bush, VisitScotland director of events, said the tour was an engaging example of taking Dandelion right into the heart of locations right across Scotland with sustainable e-bikes, to be enjoyed by locals and visitors alike.
Paul added: "It’s also fantastic to see events like this embed active travel as part of their programme, and it’s particularly exciting to see biking at the core of this tour as Scotland gears up to celebrate cycling on the world-stage in one year’s time, hosting the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships," he said.
More information and location updates can be found at: www.dandelion.scot
Cosmo Blake, network engagement manager at Sustrans Scotland, also added that by using the National Cycle Network, the tour would be able to reach communities sustainably. He said:
"With the ever-present impacts from climate change, the importance of both food and transport sustainability are becoming more and more relevant.
"Bringing together active travel, growing, and the arts is a fantastic way to demonstrate the huge breadth of possibilities of cycling for transport as well as for leisure."
