Held in Arrowtown over Labour Weekend, 21 & 22 October 2023, visit the free-to-access Festival Village where you can check out the latest offerings from all sorts of e-bike brands, retailers, gear and tour operators…or participate in a specially curated trail ride in and around the Arrowtown and Queenstown trails. 

Cyclorama is the brainchild of Dave Gibson (pictured below). Dave is a retired film buff who throughout his 40 yearlong production career produced some of New Zealand’s most successful film and TV shows through his company The Gibson Group. He ended his time in the film industry at the helm of the NZ Film Commission before heading to Arrowtown to ‘retire’ with his partner…and accidentally stumbling across his new favourite pursuit, e-biking.  His latest ‘production’ is Cyclorama, New Zealand’s first e-bike festival, held annually in Arrowtown, where together with his small crew including aforementioned partner and co-founder Iris, this festival celebrating all things e-bike comes to life.

Trail Hub had a chat to Dave to find out more….

What is Cyclorama?
Cyclorama is the only festival of its kind in New Zealand that showcases the latest e-bike technologies, gear and accessories in a free-to-access Festival Village that people can wander through and interact with. In addition, we have 8 specially curated trail rides that take participants on various journeys of discovery around the Queenstown Lakes region. These are experiences that you can’t have at any time other than during Cyclorama!

What was your inspiration for creating the event?
The idea for Cyclorama came about while I was scouring the web for everything I could find related to e-biking, and I came across an e-bike festival in Verbier, Switzerland. We’ve taken inspiration from that festival but made our own very special kiwi festival.

Why did you choose Arrowtown as the host town?
It’s such a perfect destination through which you can access the vast network of the Queenstown Trails and great private locations that we access for our specially curated trail rides. Butler’s Green where the festival hubs from provides direct access to these trails, so it’s a match made in heaven!

You’re back for a second year, so obviously the inaugural event was a success. What were people saying about last year’s Cyclorama?
We loved the inaugural event, but we also know there is room for us to elevate it. People who went on some of the special trail rides were raving about their experience. Here’s some of the feedback we received:

“Apart from having an excuse to visit amazing Arrowtown, we loved the concept of the themed rides and the rides themselves. Concocting our own gin on the Ginology tour was a stand-out!” 

“I loved meeting all the people and the course was fabulous and the pizza at Canyon was so delicious, and my husband loved the beers. All in all, the entire experience was Awesome. Very well organised. Good job team cyclorama.  I hope you come back next year; we will definitely be there!!!“

“Great ride and fabulous locations on the Gourmet tour“. 

“Loved the bird watching ride and follow on breakfast. Really well done and enjoyable guides.“

“Great atmosphere and variety of rides” and “LOVED IT! I was on such a high when I finished. Please come back next year”!

You get the picture…we had a great time hosting Cyclorama last year, and we are so excited to be back in 2023…with a few changes to improve the overall festival.  For example, we know that last year we could have made more of the Festival Village, the hub of the event.  Visitors would liked to have seen more variety of stands and we would have liked a few more locals coming down to explore all the action.

What can they expect from the 2023 event? 
We have gone into Cyclorama 2023 all guns blazing! We’ve launched three new trail rides taking the offering from 5 last year to 8 this year. All aspects of the Festival Village have also been amplified to ensure there is a great selection of e-bike brands and retailers showcasing the latest technologies, as well as gear and accessory brands, tour experiences and apparel.  We have musical entertainment from lunchtime which will be absolutely awesome, and this will really get the festival vibe going.  And we have a great selection of food & beverage on site to make Cyclorama a must-visit destination over Labour Weekend.

Do you have plans to grow Cyclorama? What’s next?
Well, the short answer is yes, but don’t tell Iris! I think we better focus on Arrowtown first… but you might see another edition of Cyclorama pop up elsewhere in the country one day.

Where can I find out more or get involved?
The Cyclorama website is where you can learn all about the trail rides and the goings on within the Festival Village. We regularly update and showcase our rides and partners on our Instagram (@cyclorama_nz) and Facebook pages. You can also sign up to our newsletter via the website so that you’re among the first to know about everything Cyclorama. If you are in the trade and would like to exhibit, you can reach out to Emilie who will go through various options with you.

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