After a rocking launch in Lesotho, global sports & music upliftment initiative #pumpforpeace is hitting South Africa with benefit concerts and new pump tracks, starting in Pretoria.
Headlining Pretoria’s #pumpforpeace outdoor concert on 12 August at Wolwespruit MTB and Trail Park are firm favourites The Parlotones and Karen Zoid. A whole feast of other artists will be announced soon, and event producer Maryke Zietsman of The Project Room promises audiences the very best of South African talent across music genres.
“Everybody’s excited about this initiative,’ she says. ‘Everybody wants to be involved, everybody wants to make a difference. It’s not going to be long before we’re bringing international acts onto the scene.”
With further shows ready to roll out in Joburg, Cape Town, and Durban in 2017/2018, all proceeds will support the revival of music and sport initiatives and charities in disadvantaged communities as well as the construction of new pump tracks.
Pump tracks, for those who haven’t been completely hooked yet, are all the rage for cyclists of all ages. They’re the wildly undulating, looping, exhilarating tracks that have become the social hotspots where age, race, gender, and social barriers dissolve, and talent blooms.
World renowned mountain bike racer Claudio Caluori has seen those transformations again and again with every pump track his company Velosolutions has built from Thailand to New York City. It’s what inspired him to make pump tracks and talent development accessible to everyone.
Through #pumpforpeace Caluori has united riders and musicians to give back to developing communities around the world in a bid to create healthier people with healthier attitudes and to promote tolerance and peace. The initiative may still be in its early stages, but already his first project in Lesotho has young people glowing.
There hasn’t been a single weekend without kids racing around the Velosolutions’ Lesotho track in Roma since the day it was completed. There’s even a “free-to-use” fleet of bikes for anyone who can’t afford their own and people can trade skills or labour for the use of a bike at any time.
Caluori, who was seen giving some of his secret pump track tips to some of the younger riders at the Lesotho launch, beams at the memory of that day.
“Riding and music are the two things that have changed my life, and the feeling of being able to share that – especially with young people – is indescribable. It’s just given me even more fire to take this initiative to every corner of the globe.” he says.
In the spirit of the initiative, celebrating music as well as an active lifestyle, the Pretoria #pumpforpeace event will kick off with a short-form mountain bike enduro race with Caluori, followed by a full day of live tunes.
Ticket prices range from R150 adults first phase ticketing, to R180 per person second phase ticketing, with R280 for VIPs and R80 for kids under the age of 12.
Participation in the enduro race is set at R300 per ticket with R400 for a VIP ticket, which will include access to the music concert. Tickets available on www.webtickets.co.za
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