This Friday, June 20th, Thessaloniki will host the 18th edition of the Naked Bike Ride. A peaceful event that blends cycling, ecology, and body freedom, right in the heart of the city and its urban challenges.
The gathering begins at 5 PM, with a body painting workshop setting the tone in a festive and colorful atmosphere. Then, at 7 PM, the ride departs from the White Tower, with participants invited to ride “as naked as they dare,” according to their personal comfort levels.
A global protest for a gentler world
Thessaloniki’s Naked Bike Ride is part of a global movement that began in 2001 in Zaragoza, Spain, under the name Cyclonudista, as a protest against oil dependency and car culture. In 2004, the movement gained momentum in Vancouver and grew into an international initiative: the World Naked Bike Ride, now held in over 70 cities worldwide.
Each edition shares common goals:
- Promote urban cycling and make soft mobility safe and accessible, challenging the dominance of cars and reducing our dependency on oil and fossil fuels.
- Fight against air and noise pollution and climate disruption.
- Defend bodily freedom of expression by desexualizing nudity and embracing body diversity.
Bicycles thus become not just a means of transport, but also a tool for political expression.
The Naked Bike Ride in Thessaloniki
In Thessaloniki, the Naked Bike Ride was launched in 2008 by Costa, for whom cycling and nudism were both forms of liberation. Cycling represented freedom from the stressful and time-consuming daily use of cars. Nudism, meanwhile, was a way to break free from body image issues shaped by a society obsessed with the ideal body.
Today, the event is organized by the Gymnosophy collective and attracts up to 2,000 participants each year. In a city plagued by traffic congestion, poor cycling infrastructure, and underdeveloped public transport, the Naked Bike Ride has become a powerful awareness tool. It draws residents’ attention, gathers petition signatures, and puts pressure on local authorities to implement real change.
Local action, global issues
In Thessaloniki, the Naked Bike Ride’s demands are both local and global. While the event aligns with worldwide fights for ecology, climate action, and bodily freedom, it’s also deeply rooted in the city’s specific issues.
Cycling infrastructure still lacking
The city is in dire need of safe, protected bike lanes. Apart from the seaside promenade, cycling in the streets is difficult, even dangerous. Despite an ambitious European plan calling for 77 km of separated bike paths, progress has been slow, inconsistent, and sometimes reversed. In the face of a powerful automotive lobby, the Naked Bike Ride acts as a pressure tactic to speed up change.
A green space under threat
This year, one of the event’s main battles concerns the future of the Helexpo site. The city plans to build a shopping center and hotels there. The Gymnosophy collective, however, is advocating for a large urban park, in a city severely lacking green spaces. A public petition is underway, aiming to gather 25,000 signatures to demand a local referendum on the project.
Systemic struggles
The event also ties into broader struggles. It denounces national policies seen as unfavorable to sustainable transportation, with limited investment in public transport and a clear preference for fossil fuel and construction lobbies. This is exemplified by tragedies such as the Tempi train crash, which exposed the neglect of Greece’s railway system.
Moreover, the Naked Bike Ride opposes a recent law banning RV and caravan parking in public spaces, seen as a step toward gentrification and commercialization of public land, at the expense of free and alternative forms of tourism.
Nudity as a political tool
At the heart of the event, nudity plays a central role. It is neither mandatory nor imposed but offered as a form of free, non-sexual, and deeply political expression. By making all bodies visible — regardless of shape, gender, or age — the Naked Bike Ride helps dismantle dominant aesthetic norms and promotes self-acceptance.
This act becomes a demand: to normalize the nude body in public space, to free it from the sexualized gaze, and to show that nudity in itself is neither shameful nor indecent.
More than a protest, the Naked Bike Ride is a collective celebration, a moment where urban space is creatively, festively, and peacefully reclaimed. By pedaling nude through the streets, participants send a powerful message: our bodies and our cities should not be bound by the norms of a polluting, consumerist, and alienating society.
To learn more or sign the petitions: https://www.gymnosophy.gr/18th-wnbr-2025/
Article by Maria Beauvais & Joanne Santier.
