The Urban Bike Festival, held every spring in Zurich West, has so far been accompanied by amazing weather luck. The sun was shining again in 2020, but this time the organizers would probably have preferred the wet cold of the previous week so that as many people as possible could follow the purely digital event on their screens. The fact that there were no spectators at the EKZ Cyclocross Challenge, which was partly held on the Josefwiese, was due to the fact that these competitions were recorded early in the morning. "If anyone had stopped, our security service would have turned them away," reveals OC President Erwin Flury. 80 people were on duty for the studio event and visitors had to introduce themselves.

The center of the event was a logistics hall in Zurich, which had been transformed into an Urban Bike Festival studio with the familiar aesthetic. SRF presenter Stephan Flury hosted the program, OC President Erwin Flury welcomed his talk guests and cyclocross impresario Christian Rocha commented on his race. The product presentations occasionally had the unintentional comedy of shopping TV. In any case, the mood and emotions of a studio event should not be measured against a real event. The joy of being able to offer the audience something was clear to see from the people in front of the camera. Erwin Flury, who has been organizing events since the early nineties, explained afterwards: "The production of this digital live festival was a real adventure. The preparations for it were very intensive and not easy, especially given the current Covid-19 situation. Many things were new for the event organizers and also for the audiovisual specialists, as we realized a mixture of live event and studio production - a hybrid experience. The atmosphere among the 80 or so people involved was really good, and for many of them it was their first assignment after the many weeks of lockdown."
Whether or not the financial side of things will work out is another matter. OC President Flury emphasizes that they received great support from the sponsors and the city of Zurich. The live production was an additional expense and there was a lack of income from catering, among other things. Much less staff had to be paid for this. Nevertheless, there will still be a loss, as is the case for the organizer, Bike Days GmbH, like so many other Swiss companies.

One of the highlights of recent years has been the cyclocross race on Josefstrasse. This was transformed into an invitational competition with various disciplines - a kind of super decathlon for cyclocross specialists. In teams of two, they competed in overcoming stairs (impressive bike skills of the best), long jump, relay through the water ditch and finally in a real relay race. The riders were visibly motivated to take victory in this fun format after the long break from competition. The nominally strongest team, Sina Frei and Lars Forster, lost out in the final race. Watch the whole EKZ Cyclocross Challenge here (YouTube).
Crowd favorite Danny Macaskill couldn't make it to Zurich this year, the city he supposedly loves so much. At least Fabio Wibmer was live in the studio and used it as you would expect from him: tricky and stylish. His shows in particular showed how much the audience contributes to the event. As impressive as the performance was, the demo at the Lagerhaus seemed a little anemic. On the other hand, the Austrian was able to show in the interviews what a likeable guy he is, even after over 500 million views of his videos and the resulting worldwide fame. Fabio Wibmer's show on YouTube.

What next for the Urban Bike Festival and Bike Days?

When asked how the Urban Bike Festival and Bike Days will survive the coronavirus crisis, Erwin Flury replies: "Of course we've suffered a loss and that's a bitter pill for us - but if our partners cooperate, both events will go ahead next year. In the coming weeks and months, we will be looking at what the events will look like. Due to Covid-19, we have to work out different scenarios. We are convinced that we will find suitable ways for our cycling events."
The Urban Bike Festival streamed digitally for four hours each on Saturday and Sunday. Those who preferred to enjoy the beautiful weather outside with a physical activity can watch the highlights of the digital festival in full length, either right now or the next time it rains.
Urban Bike Festival digital on Facebook