The 11th Annual Pine Needle Mountain Bike & Music Festival was the most successful to date.
Emcee Kelly Taylor speaks during the Pine Needle Mountain Bike & Music Festival at Little Red River Park on Sunday
Little Red River Park in Prince Albert hosted the event on Sunday afternoon. The event saw six different bands perform, food served by the Knotty Pine and plenty of cyclists out on the trail.
With more than 160 cyclists, the 2024 edition of the festival was the most successful to date. Chief organizer Mike Horn says he was excited to see the amount of support that the community showed for the event.
“(It’s) pretty overwhelming actually and just very grateful for the support. We missed a couple years because of COVID in 2020 and 2021 and last year we had 94 people out participating which I thought was pretty good coming back and then to have 160 this year, it’s amazing. It’s absolutely incredible the support and the cycling community is really embracing the event and everyone’s having a great time.”
With 160 participants in the cycling portion of the event and countless more attending the free event for the music and other activities, Horn says he thinks the festival has the potential to keep growing in the years to come.
“You never really know what to expect. You never know what the turnouts are going to be like. The feedback we get from the participants year after year, they have fun. They can come out with friends and family, and they can spend a day in the park, and it’s a fun event. I think we can keep growing it. I think we can get 200 people. I don’t know what the ceiling is and how many people we’re going to top out at. But I can see it growing. And over the years, it’s definitely evolved.”
In a year that has seen plenty of rain in the months of May and June, it was no guarantee that Mother Nature would cooperate on the day of the event. It was a clear, cool day on Sunday afternoon for the festival.
Horn says the rain in the days leading up to the event actually helped the mountain bike trails.
“We were a little nervous, to be honest. The weather has been a little bit unsettled the last little bit. We’ve had a lot of rain but Little Red handles rain well, it’s very sandy. The more rain the better, it makes the mountain bike trail a little firmer. That’s been great and today, it’s been dry and the sun is poking out a little bit. It’s actually perfect. It’s a nice temperature for people to mountain bike in.”
Performers at the festival included Josh Stumpf, East Side of 2nd, The PRetty Goods, The Brothers G and Chesterfield. Kelly Taylor served as the emcee for the event.
sports@paherald.sk.ca
