After proposing the idea of a "bicycle-centric" festival for the 2016 My Top Festival competition, Andy Fry is gearing up with his fellow bicycle enthusiasts to prepare for the second annual Cyclovia festival in Topeka.

The three-day event features all things bicycle, food trucks and live entertainment.

"I think an event like this helps showcase that bicycling can be whatever you want it to be, and it puts people in a comfortable place in regards to bikes in their neighborhood and the community; it makes it approachable," Fry said.

Fry is the director of operations for the Topeka Community Cycling Project, one of the partners with Visit Topeka to put on this three-day event Aug. 11-13.

Friday night the event begins with a glow ride, where bicycles will be decked out in neon glowsticks and begin their night ride on the south steps of the Capitol building.

The event continues Saturday with a breakfast ride, a kids ride and obstacle course downtown, an ice cream ride, and the showing of a bike film from the Filmed by Bike festival in Portland, Ore.

"We’re also helping coordinate bike donations they’re bringing in from Lansing Correctional Facility," Fry said. "Since our move we don’t have a lot of bikes to give out, so we’re utilizing a program where inmates work on bikes and fix up used bikes so we’re helping with that, and Safe Kids Shawnee County with helmet fittings, and we also have a grant through KDOT where we have $5,000 a year to give out head- and taillight kits, so we’re going to give those out Friday evening and Saturday when we’re helping with the glow ride."

From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Safe Kids Shawnee County will host a Kid’s Bike Rodeo during Cyclovia. The rodeo will include several stations, including rules of the road, bicycle maintenance, helmet fitting and a bike obstacle course.

"We are very excited about the increase in bicycling activities in Topeka," said Teresa Taylor, the SKSC coordinator with Stormont Vail Health. "Cycling is a wonderful activity for families and individuals to stay active, explore the community and connect with others. Our coalition wants to teach kids and families how to be as safe as possible while having fun on their bikes."

Through the Cyclovia festival, the organizers hope to explain bike safety in Topeka, accessibility to bicycling, and provide bikes and safety equipment to as many riders as possible.

"I think it (the festival) was needed because we have our bike ways, we have Topeka Metro Bikes, we’ve influences some of the changing of ordinances and laws related to bikes, but I think Topeka needs an approachable inclusive event that shows everybody that bicycling is what you make it," Fry said.

Unofficially, TCCP held a bike festival two years ago in North Topeka, where Karl Fundenberger helped organize a smaller version of Cyclovia. After the event won the My Top Festival contest, Visit Topeka has grown it and even includes five neighborhood events to increase awareness and provide bikes to as many neighborhoods as possible.

Also new this year was the film festival screening. Topeka was one of seven cities to screen the film, which Fry said is called "Bike Packing."

"It’s a mixture of bike adventure movies and people go on these excursions on bikes, so it’s called Bike Packing and basically it’s like backpacking on bikes, and it’s a documentary, there’s like six or seven of them and they’re one and a half to two hours long," Fry said.

Fry also said it was notable that Topeka would be listed among other major metropolitan cities screening the film, such as London, Seattle and Boulder, Colo.

"It doesn’t have to be intense or overwhelming, biking can be riding to a restaurant, to a grocery store, it can be riding a bike to the park with your kids, it can be just as fun or ridiculous as you make it." Fry said.

For information about Cyclovia visit visittopeka.com/events/festivals/cyclovia.

CYCLOVIA SCHEDULE

— Friday, Aug. 9: Glow Ride, 8 p.m., south steps of Capitol.

— Saturday, Aug. 10: Breakfast Ride, 8 a.m., 7th and S. Kansas Ave.; 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., open streets along S. Kansas Ave.; 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Kids Bike Ride and Obstacle Course, downtown; 1 to 2 p.m., Ice Cream Ride, 7th and S. Kansas Ave.; 2 to 4 p.m., 61-minute bike film at Jayhawk Theatre, 720 S.W. Jackson; 4 p.m., Happy Hour Ride, Jayhawk Theatre.

— Sunday, Aug. 11: 50-mile excursion ride, 618 S. Kansas Ave. Time to be announced.