Watch: Biketown parody music video celebrating cycling in Victoria

Celebrating cycling in Greater Victoria, Biketown is a parody of Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’s catchy hit Downtown. Intended to promote cycling as a fun, accessible, and sustainable recreational activity and form of transportation. The music video encourages the Victoria community to continue to share the road with cyclists and invest in cycling infrastructure.

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The video was written and directed by Matt Hulse, a lawyer practicing Aboriginal and environmental law in Victoria. The song was performed by local artists Tane Kendrick and Erika Finestone, and was produced by Noel Anstey of Quadratic Sound Studios. The video was filmed and edited by Rylan Gladson.

Biketown is set in Greater Victoria, a region which has a thriving cycling community with a bike-friendly climate and a great natural landscape for cyclists. Mackelmore’s hit music video Downtown tells the story of life on mopeds in Seattle while Biketown tells the story of cycling in Victoria, Canada’s unofficial cycling capital. Mackelmore’s hit has been watched 138 million times as of Jan. 26, 2017 on Youtube since it’s release in the summer of 2015.

Everyday cyclists from the community and local cycling personalities such as Ironman and two-time Olympic triathlete Brent McMahon, 2006 Canadian Ironman champion Jasper Blake, triathlete Matt Sharpe, Vicotria mayor Lisa Helps, MLA Lana Popham and MP Murray Rankin all participated in the filming of the video.

“I am an avid cyclist for work and play and Biketown is my passion project,” said said Hulse the write and director of the video. “It was inspired by local government action on bike lanes, the elite athletes that we call neighbours and the diverse cycling community that we can ride with. Greater Victoria is a fantastic place for cyclists and Biketown was created as a fun reminder of just how lucky we are,”