Survival Tour: Charity Bike Ride To Raise Money For Live

The group aims to complete 1,500km across England, traveling a circuitous route between Newcastle and London, Oct. 3-18. 

The route will take them across many UK venues and festival sites, in order to raise awareness – and money – for the plight of closed-down venues and more than 600,000 live industry professionals currently unable to work.

Money raised through a dedicated crowdfunder will go to the charity Backup, supporting entertainment technology professionals in need of support.

£17,583 ($22,800) had been raised at press time.

The initial six riders were Steve Reynolds and Mike Trasmundi, who work at Loudsound, along with Mark Ward, Harry Ford and Tyler Cole-Homes of Proper Productions.

Other event professionals are encouraged to join the ride, which is raising money for the many people affected by what is effectively an employment ban imposed by the UK government for people working in live.

The cyclists are followed by a tour bus, sponsored by Crosslands, in which the team sleeps.

Steve Reynolds said, “The thought of how the people and companies in industry we all love and work in is being decimated will motivate us across the miles.”

The riders plan to cover 60km to 100km per day. “We want to raise awareness and bring people together along the route to show the huge positive contribution events and venues make to our society,” Reynolds continued.

Mark Ward commented, “Events are all about bringing people together and we hope in this dark hour we can help bring the event community together as part of the #WeMakeEvents campaign. 

“The events industry is a powerful, vibrant and hugely viable sector that is critical to maintaining the cultural fabric of our society, and we want to shine a light on the fact that we have been forced to shut with no meaningful support mechanism.”