My Cork bicycle trek played key role in my new film

Prompted by the realisation that travel to and from music festivals creates a significantly larger carbon footprint than the festivals themselves, musician and film-maker Nick Kelly set out to make a point.

He cycled from Dublin to Glastonbury to prove that it is possible to play at one of the world’s most beloved music festivals while being kinder to the environment.

Before embarking on that journey, later documented in his film The Song Cycle, Kelly tested the concept with an ambitious cycling tour across West Cork, travelling between venues by bike while carrying his own equipment.

“I came up with this theory that it should be possible for an artist of my very modest stature to tour by bicycle,” he explained.

“I got booked to play Glastonbury and also filled in several dates. I realised many are interested in the idea and that I could, in fact, do this.”

Kelly, a founding member of the 1980s hit band The Fat Lady Sings, felt Cork would provide the ideal proving ground.

He intended to undertake the trip with his friend and fellow musician Seán Millar, his partner in the musical collaboration Dogs. However, shortly before the tour, Millar was diagnosed with a serious heart condition and was unable to cycle.

The roads of West Cork, Kelly believed, would offer a realistic preview of the challenges awaiting him in Wales, where he would spend much of his trip to Glastonbury.

“I know Cork well, and I thought the roads there looked manageable while being roughly as hilly as South Wales,” said Kelly.

“We set off from Cork city and rode to Clonakilty, Ballydehob, and then Schull, playing gigs at each stop.

“When the tour was over, Seán was getting the bus back to cork City. I had planned to go with him, but I thought, ‘I’ll just keep cycling’.”

What began as a trial run quickly turned into a personal challenge. Kelly had intended to stay overnight in Clonakilty, but when he arrived, he realised he still had more to give.

“By then, I’d already ridden the longest distance I’d ever cycled, about 110 kilometres, carrying my guitar and all my gear. I felt surprisingly bulletproof.

“I remember thinking about the hill outside Rosscarbery. I’d often struggled to drive up it, so I wondered whether I could manage it on a bicycle. When I did, I thought: if I can get up that hill, what can Wales possibly throw at me?”

The trip also helped him refine the practicalities of bicycle touring. Travelling under his own steam meant learning to distinguish between essentials and excess, something viewers will see reflected in the documentary’s streamlined set-up.

“There are sacrifices to fashion and hygiene. I brought a small guitar and got rid of some clothes,” said Kelly.

“At a certain point, you start looking at everything and asking yourself whether you really need it. Cycling is quite good for forcing those decisions. I definitely trimmed things down.

“I didn’t bring a tent to West Cork, which helped, although I remember thinking the tent was ahead of me for the Glastonbury trip.”

Although Kelly was already an experienced city cyclist, he had relatively little experience of navigating the narrow country roads that would make up much of the route to Glastonbury.

West Cork, he says, taught him how to ride them safely - or, as he puts it, how to “learn how not to get killed”.

Yet the most lasting lessons were not logistical or physical. Travelling by bicycle transformed his relationship with places he thought that he already knew.

“Just outside Skibbereen, there’s a small graveyard. I’d seen the sign countless times in a car, but on a bike, I could stop. It turned out to be a famine graveyard.

“It’s an extraordinary and sobering thing to come across, but it’s also a good example of how travelling by bicycle changes your relationship with a place. You interact with your surroundings much more directly.

“I loved getting the chance to stop when and where I wanted. Even the climb out of Rosscarbery, challenging as it was, felt like part of the experience.”

While the documentary’s central focus is Kelly’s journey to Glastonbury, it is also a meditation on friendship, ageing, and loss. Alongside charting the rise and legacy of The Fat Lady Sings, the film explores the lasting impact of his father’s death at 59.

That loss profoundly shaped Kelly’s perspective on growing older and what it means to have a future beyond 60 - a milestone he himself reached during the making of the documentary.

As a result, The Song Cycle becomes not only a story about music and sustainable travel, but also a reflection on mortality, resilience, and the value of embracing new challenges later in life.

Kelly will return to Cork on Thursday, June 11 for a special screening of The Song Cycle at Triskel Cinema, followed by a question-and-answer session.

Given the role Cork has played in both his musical career and his cycling adventures, the occasion feels particularly fitting.

“Cork has been very good to me musically, and I feel a great affinity for the city and county,” he said.

“The Lobby in Cork, now sadly gone, was my favourite gig in Ireland when I was trying to get my solo career up and running. It was a tiny space, but the crowds were just brilliant.

“Some of the venues you get to play when you cycle the route in West Cork are among my favourites in the world, like Levi’s in Ballydehob and De Barra’s in Clonakilty.”

Film-maker Nick Kelly will be in attendance for a Q&A following a screening of The Song Cycle at Triskel Cinema at 6pm on June 11, www.triskelartscentre.ie