Edinburgh's Cycling Festival - Edinburgh Festival of Cycling

Edinburgh Festival of Cycling header image

“One of the top 10 cycling festivals in Europe”

The eighth Edinburgh Festival of Cycling #EdFoC2024 will be live from 31st May to 9th June 2024

We need you – do you want to be part of the team?


Next event: Watch this space!

The purpose of the Edinburgh Festival of Cycling (EdFoC) is to celebrate all aspects of cycling in and around the City of Edinburgh, including travel, leisure, adventure, transport, sport, and personal development. Recognising cycling’s importance for encouraging social inclusion and economic development, reducing ill health and pollution and for making places. EdFoC aims to challenge people’s perception of what cycling is and to put Edinburgh on the map as an international cycling destination.

Here are a few things that people have said about The Edinburgh Festival of Cycling:

  • Probably the best cycling festival I’ve come across. Wish I could have participated in more
  • Really felt like there was a cycling “buzz” around the city, I only participated in a couple of things, but I saw other people doing stuff, and heard a lot about it on social media. Good stuff!
  • Really enjoyed the festival. Look forward to next year!

Unlike some other cycling festivals, The Edinburgh Festival of Cycling doesn’t just revolve around the sports side of cycling (although we aim to cater for sports cycling in all its forms as well). There are so many sides to cycling – from transport to sport, from leisure activity to cultural icon – all of which the festival sets out to celebrate, with a wide range of sporting, cultural and fun events for all age groups, across the city.

The Edinburgh Festival of Cycling was originally envisaged as a proper Edinburgh-style festival. A citywide event, originally held over nine days, showcasing and celebrating all aspects of bicycle culture and the city itself. The Festival was expanded from nine days to ten in 2014, and then 11 days inclusive from 2015 onwards.

The Edinburgh Festival of Cycling Ltd is a not-for-profit social enterprise, run by a small group of people. Currently, the board of directors consists of Kim Harding (Founder and CEO), John Whittaker, and Ulli Harding.

Edinburgh City of Festivals

Edinburgh prides itself on being the City of Festivals. There are festivals for The Arts (and their attendant Fringe), Books, Films, Science, and even Storytelling. Edinburgh also has ambitions to be a Cycling City. It was the first UK city to sign the Charter of Brussels and is currently committing 10% of the city’s transport budget to cycling. We feel this is a good time for Edinburgh to have a cycling festival, and so the Edinburgh Festival of Cycling was born.

As a proper Edinburgh style festival, the Edinburgh Festival of Cycling runs for over a week (the first year for nine days, and from the second year onward for 10 days), it is a real showcase for all aspects of cycle culture and the City of Edinburgh. It aims to challenge people’s perceptions of what cycling is and to put Edinburgh on the international map as a cycling city.

Featuring a wide range of events: from rides (sporty and otherwise) to family activities, to a range of cultural events, the Edinburgh Festival of Cycling truly has something for everyone!. The festival was first run in 2013. In 2014, it offered over 80 individual events at 46 different venues, with around 5,000 people from around the world participating. In 2015, the festival got bigger, and it had to extend so that we could fit in even more events. The Edinburgh Festival of Cycling has been listed as one of Active Traveller Magazine’s top 10 cycling festivals in Europe for 2017, as well as one of the UK’s best cycling festivals by The Guardian and Total Women’s Cycling 2016 (also 2015 and in 2014 too).

Cargo bike hire

We have an Urban Arrow Family cargo bike that is available for hire. The Urban Arrow is an ideal way to move children or goods about the city, it’s fun, it’s green and clean. Find out more about hiring it here.

Supporters & Sponsors

We thank the following organisations who were supporters and sponsors of The Edinburgh Festival of Cycling in 2019:

Principal Supporters 2019

Sustrans logo

Gold Supporters 2019
Watermans Solicitors logo Spokes cycle campaign logo Poppy Scotland logo

Silver Supporters 2019
Allan McDougall Solicitors Cycle Law Scotland logo

Bronze Supporters 2019
systra Harts Cyclery logo Friends of the Earth Scotland logo
AC Cycling Services WPS Logo

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Partner organisations 2019

 

Accommodation Partner Haymarket Hub Hotel
Use corporate code EDFOC19

Hub Hotel logo
Transport Partner
Urban Arrow
Urban Arrow cargo bike logo
Edinburgh Night Ride
mechanical support partner

Leith Cycle Co logo
Full member:
Edinburgh Social Enterprise

full member of Edinburgh Social Enterprise
Full member:
Social Enterprise Scotland

Social Enterprise Scotland Member logo

You can see more pictures from some of the Festival’s events over on our Flickr stream, and you can add your own to the Edinburgh Festival of Cycling Flickr group

Edinburgh Festival of Cycling