An overdue update about the 2025 York Cycle Rally & Festival!
Our all-volunteer organising team has been busy making this year’s event the best and busiest yet, with:
- Two days of grasstrack racing!
- Two days of cycle jumbles!
- More than 40 traders and exhibitors so far!
- all in the 80th year of the York Rally!
We’re working hard to make the event the best it can be, not least to secure its financial future, as you can read here. Many thanks especially to all who have booked campsite pitches despite the price rises we have very reluctantly implemented – the numbers are looking very encouraging. If you are able to book for 2025 and have not yet done so, please do visit the online booking page – thank you!
We also have news about how you can support the event by distributing leaflets or by joining our re-launched supporters club, the Friends of York Cycle Festival – see below!
Now on to the updates!
Two days of cycle racing!
The spectacular grasstrack racing at the York Cycle Festival is organised by the National Clarion Cycling Club as part of their Summer Meet – and we’re delighted that the success of last year means that they’ll be racing in 2025 both on Saturday and Sunday!
We’ve also re-designed the site layout to place the racing track at the centre of the event (and among other changes, to return the Info Hub – formerly Rally HQ – to its traditional location near the corner of the Enclosure fence.)
Two days of cycle jumbles!
With the retirement for health reasons of our long-serving auctioneer, Tony Stephenson, we have decided that the popular Cycle Jumble (previously known as the “Saddlebag Sale”) will run on both Saturday and Sunday.
Charles Jepson, the cycle jumble organiser, notes:
Jumble opening times:
- Saturday 21st June; 2pm to 6pm
- Sunday 22nd June; 10am to 2pm
Buyer admission: £1 or free with Festival programme.
Pitches inside the marquee:
- £15 per table each day.
- £25 if booking a single table for both days.
Sellers please note: There is no facility for outdoor pitches at these cycle jumbles and the sale of complete bicycles/trikes will not be allowed the marquee. An area outside the marquee will be roped-off for the inspection and sale of complete machines.(bring a lock, and a card with your contact details).
Table reservations are by cheque (payable to York Rally) or by cash to: Charles Jepson, Aysgaard, Beardwood Brow, Blackburn, BB2 7AT. Tel: 01254 51302 (just 5 digits) or 07967 146185 E-mail: clarioncc@yahoo.co.uk
Over 40 traders and exhibitors!
We’re delighted that the trade and display area at the 2025 York Cycle festival is shaping up really well. With more than three months to go we are already up to 44 trade and display bookings, with 23 traders so far including two cycle coaching teams and a sports massage service!
Any traders, club or organisation exhibitors who have not yet booked in are warmly invited to contact our Trade Show organising volunteer, Dave Broadbent on 07920 201171 or trade@yorkrally.org
80 years of the York Rally!
It’s a full 80 years since the very first York Rally in 1945! It was originally named “The Grand All-Yorkshire Cyclists Rally” and you can read a brief history of the event here.
The earliest photo we have is from 1947, below.
Visitors to the York Cycle Festival 2025 wil be carrying on a very long and very fine tradition!
Support your York Cycle Rally & Festival!
(1) Distribute our leaflets!
Could you help us deliver our leaflets again this year? We’ve now printed our 2025 A5 flyers (see the top of this post) and we hope our loyal regular distributors could once again step up and help spread the word!
First timers are of course also most welcome to join, too!
Please just drop a note to trade@yorkrally.org with your name, postal address and how many leaflets you would like – we will be very happy to get them posted out to you! For logistical reasons, this year it is our Trade volunteer Dave Broadbent who is sending them out.
(2) Join the Friends of York Cycle Festival!
For many years we have had a supporters’ club, the Friends of York Rally, which has been invaluable in keeping the event alive.
Now, as the Rally becomes part of the wider York Cycle Festival, and with rising costs meaning your support is more vital than ever, we are re-launching the Friends as the Friends of York Cycle Festival.
We hope that the Friends will become more than a way to drive income for the event – we’d also love for it to be a community of our keenest supporters and volunteers.
Benefits of membership of the Friends of the York Cycle Festival include:
- Members can pick up a free show programme at the Festival, which gives free entry to the Cycle Jumble
- A twice-yearly newsletter, accessible via a dedicated FYCF web page
- And members can also pick up a free Friends badge!
- That satisfying feeling of helping to sustain something worthwhile
As an organising team, we hope that the relaunched Friends will be a good way to keep in touch with keen Festival supporters. It would also be wonderful if some Friends who can attend the Festival in 2025 could volunteer to help during the event, to assist for example with selling items from the FYCF table at the Cycle Jumble or rattling buckets to collect donations. Many hands make light work!
All current Friends of York Rally will continue to be much valued Friends until their membership is due for renewal after a year’s membership, at which point existing Friends (and any new joiners) will be invited to join the Friends of York Cycle Festival an an annual rate of £20, which we hope to be a realistic sum. All the details of how to join (online, or by post) are on the Friends of York Cycle Festival page.
Thank you for reading this far! You continued support is very much appreciated, and we can’t wait to see everyone on the Knavesmire again in 2025 for another York Cycle Rally and Festival!
Until then, tailwinds and safe cycling!
The all-volunteer York Cycle Rally & Festival organising team