Plans afoot for a Tree of Light

We're not quite sure how we've managed to keep quiet about this project for quite as long as we have. It's probably something to do with the fact, it's a biggy. So big, that although planning work started at the beginning of this year the end result won't be seen until July 2012. Electric Pedals have been invited to be involved in The Tree of Light project, which is one of the regional Cultural Olympiad projects.

It's a joint project between various organisations including Henley Festival, Oxford Inspires, Ciao! Festival and Windsor festival who have secured £1.2m in grants from Legacy Trust UK and Arts Council. We're working alongside the incredible creative team who have been brought on board to deliver the events including Block9 (the guys behind The London Underground installation at Glastonbury), composer Orlando Gough and choreographer Charlie Morrissey. Together we will be engaging with communities in Reading, Oxford, Windsor and Henley to deliver five huge public performances in some of the most beautiful countryside settings.

Our job will be to power and in fact, light up, The Tree of Light which will be some kind of crazy structural centre-piece to the performances that will be created and built by Block9.

Over the course of the next year we will be running pedal-power workshops with the various schools and community groups involved in each area as part of the education legacy of the project. Each of these groups will have the opportunity to get involved in some aspect of the performance whether it's providing power, singing or dance and choreography. Throughout the educational programme the groups will be exploring the theme of mankind’s relationship to trees and this will inspire the final performances. All participants will have opportunity to feed their ideas into the final story and composition.

The large-scale celebrations will embody the powerful sustainability message that is at the heart of the Cultural Olympiad and the London 2012 Games which is why a human-powered installation is so fitting. As dance, music and movement combine with cutting edge digital technology it will create a blaze of light – a visually stunning public spectacle that involves more than a thousand people. We can't wait to see the end result!