Sydney press release
World Naked Bike Ride, Sydney Press Release
Media Release 2010
Written by:
Mei Qi Tan, email: meiqitan(at)gmail(dot)com and
Marte Kinder, email: wnbrnudecastle@yahoo.com.au
Get your gear off for the environment
Strip down and ride on for the environment this March. The next World Naked Bike Ride (WNBR) in Sydney will commence at high noon at the Archibald Memorial Fountain in Sydney’s Hyde Park on Saturday the 13th of March 2010.
The ride will be one of 7 rides occuring in Australia between the 6th and 21st of March, including Adelaide, Byron Bay, Canberra, Newcastle, Nimbin and Melbourne. Other cities across the world will also host rides as part of the southern hemisphere leg of WNBR's global movement, including Lima (Peru), Golden Bay (New Zealand), Sao Paulo and Brasilia (Brazil). Riders in some northern hemisphere locations (such ad Brighton UK) ride in sympathy with the southern riders.
The WNBR is an annual clothing-optional protest ride for naturism, environmentalism, peace and the rights of cyclists to use the road safely. It promotes environmental consciousness and practices at every level of society in attempt to save the planet.
The ride is not a race and goes at an easy recreational pace. The only competition is how creatively bizarre participants can get with decorating their bodies using paint, slogans and bits of costume.
Though the dress code for the ride is “Go as bare as you dare!”, nudity is not compulsory. It is not a ride promoting overtly sexual behaviour in public.
Many people still struggle to distinguish between concepts of non-sexual nudity and pornography. The WNBR encourages society’s need for a body-positive mentality, and protests against environmental damage caused by motorised vehicles.
Excessive burning of fossil fuels has instigated environmental damage in the forms of climate change, air pollution, acid rain and water pollution.
From the onset of cancer from pollution, to obesity – the burning of fossil fuels and car-addicted lifestyles are causing serious health problems, many of which are affecting humans on a widespread scale.
Violence stemming from wars fought over oil and road rage results in the deaths and injuries to innocent civilians from the former, and pedestrians and cyclists from the latter.
The WNBR is an active social movement for a peaceful and gentler world, which includes our roads.
“Peacefully expose the vulnerability of cyclists, humanity and nature in the face of cars, aggression, consumerism and non-renewable energy”, reads the WNBR mission statement.
Manifestación Ciclonudista Mundial began in Spain in 2001 and the WNBR grew from that protest which takes the form of a naked bike ride. Since then, the WNBR has spread to over 50 cites in about 20 countries with the participation of thousands of riders.
For more information, please contact Marte Kinder at wnbrnudecastle@yahoo.com.au
Website: http://australia.worldnakedbikeride.org/
Note: Written originally by Mei Qi Tan, email: meiqitan(at)gmail(dot)com and Marte Kinder, on 19/02/08 and adapted subsequently.
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