5,000 Attendees Cap Lime Bike Jousting Event in East London

A free jousting event on Lime e-bikes drew a crowd capped at 5,000 people at London Fields Park in Hackney on Saturday.

Actor Cameron Carnegie-Brown and artist Jack Carden competed in the duel, which raised funds for five charities. The pair met on hire bikes to stage a second encounter after an initial event earlier in the week.

The event took place without formal permission from Hackney Council, which stated it had not granted authorization for the gathering in the borough. Organizers released the specific location to registered attendees two hours before the start time to manage foot traffic.

Lime, the e-bike rental service, previously noted that its vehicles were not designed for jousting. The company added that while it appreciated the medieval spirit of the event, safety remained the primary concern.

Carden and Carnegie-Brown identified crowd safety as their top priority. They established a designated action zone, a dead zone, and a separate spectator area to keep participants and onlookers distinct. Stewards managed the crowd, and health professionals were present on site.

Carnegie-Brown described the experience of jousting on the bikes as a moment of intense isolation. He said that once the visor goes down, the rider sees only the opponent through a small slit. The crowd becomes a distant sound, replaced by the rider’s own breathing and heart rate.

"Your adrenaline just like pumps through your veins," Carnegie-Brown said. "The second you start pedalling, you forget it all - just ram and hope for the best. It makes you feel alive, and I think the audience feel that as well."

Tommy Moore, a 28-year-old content creator involved in the event, explained the choice of Lime bikes as a modern alternative to horses. He noted that sourcing horses in London is difficult. Moore described the event as a community-building exercise where participants dress up and engage in good spirit.

A professional jouster from Leeds commented on Friday that jousting on Lime bikes constitutes a legitimate form of the medieval sport. Carnegie-Brown characterized the event as a British performance art form, noting that the combination of London bikes and British armor creates a unique local flavor.

Carnegie-Brown stated that the organizers did not sell tickets to maintain the free nature of the experience. He said the event was not a competition in the traditional sense, but a way to bring people together for a shared feeling of freedom. An online fundraiser was launched to split donations among the five selected charities.