Around 1,000 nude cyclists are expected to join the annual Brighton Naked Bike Ride on Sunday 12 June.
As part of UK Bike Week and one of 50 World Naked Bike Ride’s happening across the globe, it’s designed as a protest against oil dependency and a celebration of cycling as eco-friendly transport. Riders will assemble in The Level Park in the city at 12pm and are instructed to be “as bare as they dare.”
A similar student ride will join the main event from the University of Sussex, meeting at Falmer House at the same time. The ride will follow an 8-mile route around the seafront and city centre before finishing - naturally - on the Black Rock naturist beach in Kemptown.
The international event has grown steadily since it began in 2004 and the Brighton ride in particular has gone from 160 riders in 2006 to 1000 last year. This year there will be new UK rides in Exeter and Portsmouth, joining regular ride locations London, Southampton, Bristol, Manchester, York and Cardiff.
Organiser Duncan Blinkhorn, said: "This is about having fun on bikes and celebrating the human body as an important form of renewable - or should I say 're-nude-able' - energy. It's also about alerting ourselves, as human beings, to our vulnerability, faced as we are with the consequences of continued dependence on fossil fuels and dangerous transport. The resulting changes to our global climate are increasingly undermining our planet's ecosystems, which will be catastrophic unless we radically change course. We are conditioned to think that lugging ourselves around in a steel casket on wheels makes us safer, when sadly this is merely storing up trouble for the future.
"The World Naked Bike Ride is about facing our fears and challenging ourselves. Many people are fearful of cycling on the roads, but evidence shows that the more people cycle, the safer we all are. By cycling naked we symbolise our vulnerability, both as individuals and as a species. It also demonstrates 'safety in numbers'. We are stronger when we come together."
For more information, visit www.worldnakedbikeride.org/brighton.
