Newport Folk Festival stage powered by bikes

The Newport Folk Festival, known for creating electrifying musical moments, is offering a small outdoor stage this weekend powered in part by festival-goers on stationary bikes.

The Bike Stage is the brainchild of the band Illiterate Light, an environmentally conscious indie rock duo from Virginia, who teamed up with a company called Rock the Bike to create a pedal-powered sound system that they used at small club gigs.

The stage is equipped with solar panels that provide most of the power for the amps and other equipment, with the bikes providing the rest.

Fans take turns pedaling for about five minutes during the 20-minute sets and get a free iced tea and a front row view of the show in exchange.

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