Returning to Glen Tanar in Aberdeenshire this August, the Limitlass Festival offers a unique experience by women for women.
Pete sat down for a chat with the team behind the Limitlass Festival, Fiona Finnie, Anna Riddell and Katie May about the second edition of their womens-only bike shindig.
How was the inspiration behind Limitlass?
Anna: In short, Katie approached me saying she was going to organise a women’s only festival and did I want to help. Of course I said yes, but then quickly we realised the scale of the project unfolding. Fiona had previously mentioned to me she wanted to do something similar, so we pulled her in and, ta da, dream team created.
The three of us have experienced the benefits of women’s only cycling events and their unique stoke-building atmosphere. We wanted to bring this to North Scotland to showcase and celebrate women’s mountain biking and build an empowered female community.
Once you’ve made that decision, what happens next?
Katie: We got busy. Luckily, we all shared the same vision of Limitlass. From what we wanted it to achieve, to how the event field should look, to the vibe of the festival, so we just cracked on with the booking, planning, hustling and made it happen. Sounds simple, but it was a huge learning curve for all of us.
How many people make up Limitlass and what do they do?
Fiona: Limitlass is made up of myself (Fiona Finnie), Anna Riddell and Katie May. We are all mountain bike coaches and guides, but come from diverse backgrounds with each of us having something different to offer. With my background in marketing, I tend to take the lead on the website, social media and that sort of thing.
Anna has a huge amount of expertise and experience to offer on the coaching side, so she heads up our amazing team of coaches and guides.
Katie is our logistics busy bee. She’s always doing something, from organising food vendors and generators, to planning routes for our guided rides. As well as the three of us, we have an amazing team of female coaches, guides and volunteers who help us run the event.
Was it a challenge to find the right location for the event?
Katie: Part of our vision for Limitlass was for the setting to be somewhere special to help connect people with nature. I’m lucky enough to live and guide in Aberdeenshire and knew Aboyne had a trail network that could be challenging and fun for all abilities.
Glen Tanar Estate is in a spectacular picturesque area of Deeside so we reached out to them and started building a relationship.
The setting is idyllic and unique. Follow our gravel track for a couple of miles and you’re transported to a secluded field surrounded by ancient Caledonian Pine forest, a winding river, vast Munros, and of course sweet singletrack. What more could you want?
What are the challenges of trying to bring together female riders?
Anna: Like all groups of riders, females are all at different levels of ability and experience, so for us as event organisers the challenge is to cater for a range of abilities keeping everyone challenged. In addition, we want Limitlass to showcase not only female riders but female coaches, female mechanics, females working in the mountain bike industry etc. Our aim is for all our coaching, guided rides and workshops to be run by women which can prove to be tricky but is rewarding.
As far as getting women to attend, that’s not challenging. Women love to get together, to ride bikes, share, connect and have fun. We just need more opportunities to do so.
What did you learn from the inaugural festival that will improve the 2023 event?
Katie: We learnt heaps from an event organisation perspective and have gained so much confidence. Limitlass is unique, it’s not just a festival but an ethos, a culture and it’s something much bigger than we ever imagined. Our vision, mission and values drive us forward but also keep us on track.
For 2023 we’ve been able to hit the ground running, learning from the success of 2022, and also taking on board feedback. For example, we are offering more varied guided rides for a wider range of abilities, more bike related workshops, more shiny bike bits to buy, and not forgetting, excellent coffee.
What does having a brand like Endura, Rocky Mountain, Deuter etc on board allow you to do that you might have been able to do otherwise?
Anna: Put simply it allows the event to happen. Without their support, Limitlass would not be possible. Our brands also form part of the wider Limitlass community, providing creative ideas for support right at the grassroots level. We love that we are connecting brands to women and women to brands, all working together to make the Limitlass experience so special. We have some exciting brand announcements coming very soon, we can’t wait to reveal the specifics.
Where next for Limitlass?
Fiona: We want Limitlass to be more than just a weekend of fun on bikes. The progression and development of women in mountain biking is what drives us and we are working hard to develop a Limitlass Legacy where we give back and support our community.
We’ll continue to work with our local trail association to maintain and repair the trails we use, we aim to provide professional development opportunities for women in the industry, whether that’s trailbuilders, coaches, guides or mechanics, and of course we’ll continue to build and support our amazing community of Limitlass lasses on their mountain biking journey.
Favourite moments?
Anna: Stepping back and watching everyone dancing their hearts out on Saturday night. Seeing how happy everyone was, how free and integrated/connected. Looking around the event field and realising we have created and facilitated the whole thing, they were proud moments as a team.
Another moment was watching lasses smash it down the black trail and be genuinely stoked and surprised with what they acheived, that was amazing. We also had several women say they wanted to go from being a rider on the first Limitlass festival to eventually become guides and coaches at our future events. Yes. Genuinely though, it took several weeks afterwards for it all to sink in. Still hasn’t really.
Any disasters?
Fiona: Six weeks before the event, I broke my ankle, meaning I couldn’t coach or ride a bike at all at Limitlass. It was pretty stressful and it meant a bit of a reshuffle with pulling in last minute coaches.
The unexpected benefit was that I was able to see Limitlass from a different perspective and take in more of what was going on. Don’t tell the others but I secretly quite liked being chief clipboard person. Aside from that, everything went surprisingly smoothly for a first time event.
People to thank?
So many. Firstly, thank you to our friends and family for believing in our vision and encouraging us, even when we were glued to our laptops and phones for hours on end. Thank you to the local community and our sponsors for helping make this unique event happen, we couldn’t do it without you. And last, but no means least, thank you to all the lasses who showed up, rode bikes, pushed themselves, danced the night away and made it such an incredible weekend. You lasses rock.
