Cycling symphony opens East festival

SCORES of cyclists will present a rare performance of Mauricio Kagel's 90-second symphony to launch the East festival.

Eine Brise (A Breeze) is a piece for 111 cyclists, who ride in formation ringing their bells.

Bike riders have signed up to be part of the cycling orchestra with music direction by members of the London Chamber Orchestra for the production in Lamb Street, Spitalfields, on Thursday at 9.30am.

Kagel, an experimental Argentinian composer, was born in 1931 and delighted in unconventional instruments and bizarre combinations.

He described Eine Brise as a "fleeting action for 111 cyclists: a musically enriched sport event in the open".

The six-day East festival celebrates the creative mix of east London. It features 300 events across the City, Shoreditch, Hoxton, Whitechapel, Spitalfields, Hackney and Stratford.

There will be performance, art, history, fashion and design, film and food.