From bike to stage: VeloConcerts on the road to sustainability

# tags: Stages , Shows , Sctructures

Jonas Skielboe brought the VeloConcerts project to Conventa 2025, which consists of a bicycle that unfolds into a stage. The solution has now arrived in Portugal.

With zero emissions, it's a bicycle that turns into a stage, with equipment that allows for concerts and other types of presentations, which can be useful at events that want to be more sustainable.

Jonas Skielboe is an Austrian guitarist who has performed all over the world. If in his private life he has tried to be more sustainable - “being a vegetarian, avoiding plastic at home”, for example - he has opted for consistency and becoming greener on his travels too. Seeing the bicycle as “the best way to be sustainable on the road”, he came up with the idea of creating a solution that would pedal in the direction of sustainability.

"I've always wanted to move people with culture and art. So I also thought I had to move, take responsibility and inspire people with my own actions. And we have to have this responsibility in the culture sector, in the events sector. For me, that's the essence of events; it's about inspiring and providing the moment when people leave an event as a new person, taking that home with them."

As an artist, Jonas Skielboe has always sought to democratize culture and create a “unique experience” for everyone. Looking back, he considers that the best concerts were the intimate ones. “The magical moment we experience in our lives is when we have the connection between people” - and it was with this concept that he worked on the project. “I wanted to create this stage where an event is presented at people's eye level,” he explains.

It was at home that he began to get to work, until he met product designer Jacob Illera from Inseq Design in Vietnam. Together they created the VeloStage, “which literally unfolds from a bicycle”, like a kind of “Japanese origami”. Thus, a bicycle one meter wide “becomes a stage five meters wide”.

“We've created a structure that is accessible to everyone, that creates intimacy, but at the same time is scalable.” With the JBL partnership, a wireless sound system was also created so that the solution can be adapted to larger events by connecting more speakers. This way, “we can play for 200 people with the standard configuration that fits on a bicycle”.

VeloConcerts has already arrived in Portugal

In addition to the zero-emissions premise, Jonas Skielboe also wanted this to be a solution that could be easily implemented anywhere, without relying on electricity or diesel generators. “Our entire system is battery-powered,” he said, adding that the system is currently guaranteed to last 10 hours. In addition, the stage has integrated solar panels, which is an important point. "We want people to start rethinking how they can implement sustainability in their lives. Or how they can make their event this way."

Jonas Skielboe says that the project collaborates with an NGO that works with arts education in schools in Ghana. Despite the success of the initiative, they can't reach all the schools due to a lack of infrastructure. With VeloConcerts, problems related to roads or lack of electricity have been solved. "This is the perfect solution for them. It gives access to many more people. It's sustainable, but it's also much cheaper for them, because otherwise they would have to rent big cars and very expensive equipment," he explains.

VeloConcerts is versatile, quick to assemble and adjustable to any situation and place. "It doesn't matter if it's in nature, in the city, in a building, in a refugee camp or in a luxury casino. We've been to all these places and what pleased me most was to create a structure and architecture that interacted and didn't invade," he says.

In addition, the structure can be customized to the image of an event, brand or presentation; personalization on the stage or on the backdrops of three circles of 1.80 meters in diameter each. "We sometimes work with video projections which look very beautiful at night. And it's a very aesthetic solution," he adds.

VeloConcerts has already worked with festivals in Austria and fairs in Germany, and is already in the UK, the Canary Islands and Portugal. The brand is represented in Portugal. "And I'm very happy to say that we're now in Portugal. We started in December with various events," he says.

Jonas Skielboe is looking for partners around the world for VeloConcerts who are also “committed to implementing sustainable solutions and who are committed to our vision”.