A RANGE of installations, activities and performances will be staged at the Cycle Arts Festival in Renfrewshire next month.

The celebration is taking place on the traffic-free path that travels between Paisley and Lochwinnoch from Monday, August 1 until Sunday, August 7.

In Kilbarchan, a permanent art installation made by local artist Phillipa Tomlin, in collaboration with local residents, will be showcased. It combines uplifting poetry and a permanent mural, inspired by and exploring our connection to nature, the pigeons and other birds that live along the cycle route.

Dance artist Rod Heaslip will stage a vibrant and energetic outdoor pop-up performance at Elderslie and Lochwinnoch, which blurs the lines between traditional and contemporary dance and music.

Cyclists can also have their bike will be checked over by a trained mechanic at Dr Bike, who will make any on-the-spot adjustments and fixes that need doing right there and then, free of charge.

Rikki Payne, arts manager at OneRen, told The Gazette: "At this festival, we have a stunning array of community developed projects that really highlight the talented artists and creative communities we have in Renfrewshire.

"The Cycle Arts Festival has an outdoors organic slant asking us to examine and celebrate our remarkable natural environments in Renfrewshire both urban and rural."

Katie Rowland, art and diversity coordinator for Sustrans Scotland, said: "Sustrans is delighted to support this brilliant festival which showcases the creativity and talent of people who live in Renfrewshire. 

"It's very much a community event and we hope people who live both locally and further afield will come along, see for themselves and make use of this this brilliant, traffic-free section of National Cycle Network Route 7 in the process."

For more information about the festival, visit cycleartsrenfrewshire.co.uk.