Cyclists line up at the starting line, waiting for the beginning of the 12th Annual Pine Needle Mountain Bike and Music Festival. (paNow Staff/Nick Nielsen)

By Nick Nielsen

Sask's only Mountain Bike a Music festival

Pine Needle Mountain Bike Festival continuing to grow

Jun 8, 2025 | 1:57 PM

Mike Horn counts down the start of the 12th Annual Pine Needle Mountain Bike and Music Festival. (paNow Staff/Nick Nielsen)

Despite the rain and cool winds, 175 cyclists geared up and took ff just behind the Knotty Pine Bistro at Little Red Park on Sunday to take part in the 12th Annual Pine Needle Mountain Bike and Music Festival. With a full six hours on the clock, cyclists could team up in teams of 2-4 people to take turns completing the bike marathon, or they could challenge it themselves as a single rider.

It’s a unique event in the province, and one that organizer Mike Horn thinks Prince Albert should be proud of. There aren’t very many places in the province that have something unique like this, not only having a mountain biking festival in the province, but one that mixes in music as well.

“Anytime you can get this number out for a cycling event in our province, it’s incredible. We’ve been hosting events for a long, long time and the festival really resonates with people because the nice thing about the festival is it attracts everyone. It’s open to all levels and bodies. It’s not an overly advanced course, so anyone can come out and ride a lap and enjoy it. That’s the thing is we want we want anyone to be able to come out and enjoy the sport of mountain biking in our park.”

About 175 riders signed up to take part in this year’s event, and as a result they had to change a few things. That said, the Pine Needle Mountain Bike and Music Festival has not had to change the formula too much since starting over a decade ago.

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“We did a little bit of new stuff with our mountain bike categories, we added a three person category, we added an option for class 1 E-bikes, and the course remains the same. The food is the Knotty Pine again, but really if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. We’ve got a really good template and the kids love the the running race, you got face painting. There’s a lot of good stuff that’s happening.”

The weather beforehand made setting up the race a little bit more difficult. With conditions dry enough that ATV’s are banned right now in the province, but also enough fresh rain that organizers didn’t want to wreck the trail with a side by side, the trail had to be marked out on foot.

Luckily for Horn, he has a group of about 15 volunteers from the Rock ‘n’ Roll Cycling Club to help put the trail together to make what would have been a big job rather light work.

“Obviously we are very thankful for rain and we need it real bad, so I’m happy to have this event in the rain because we need it so badly. We had to change the way we mark the course. Normally we have a side by side, a little RTV that we can load up and and take our marking tools and drive around the course, but due to the high risk with fires, we figured we got to do it on foot, do our part to help keep our community safe. We went for a hike in the rain, marked the course, and you know what? We’re in the park, it could be worse.”

Riders come from all over the province with some from Saskatoon and La Ronge making their way to Little Red. With the trails all over just north of the North Saskatchewan River, the race serves as a great showcase for one of the Prince Albert area’s hidden gems.

“That’s part of the idea behind the festival. We’ve been hosting mountain bike events out here for 30 years and to have something out here that attracts the whole community. We’ve got live music, six bands playing from 11:00 to 5:00 PM, and we’ve got a food vendor. We’ve got a kids running race. We’ve got lots of things for people to come out and do and enjoy the park and really bring some awareness to our park and get people out enjoying this beautiful place.”

Horn told the public to mark their calendars for next year already as the race will go on the weekend before Father’s Day every year. The event is continuing to grow, and Horn hopes to see even more people coming to enjoy Little Red in the years to come.