The amazing pedal-powered punch machine

If you ever get the chance to go to Secret Garden Party, you definitely should.

Tipped as the ultimate alternative festival experience where anything goes, its boutique, arty and wacky atmosphere means you are guaranteed to stumble across a whole host of surreal happenings…

Fitting into the festival theme of Stranger Than Fiction, Courvoisier was invited this year by Head Gardener (founder) and Courvoisier The Future 500 member, Freddie Fellows, to create a fantastical and extraordinary pedal-powered punch machine that formed part of the inaugural Courvoisier Revolutionary Spirit 2010. 

So Lucy and I headed down to sunny Huntingdon, to show London Evening Standard’s Victoria Stewart what it was all about. After all, seeing is believing! Standing at eight metres high, with spinning punch turbines and a built-in bar, its impressive stance wooed the crowds across the festival’s lake and we all hopped on to pedal for some tasty Napoleon’s Dynamite Courvoisier punch. In the meantime, performers from Circus Kinetica, dressed as French revolutionaries, swung from the machine telling the story of how Napoleon had crafted this whimsical time travelling punch machine many years ago.

Being a time machine, Courvoisier’s pedal-powered punch machine may pop up in other weird and wonderful places in the near future so watch this space…

For Courvoisier punch recipes go to www.courvoisier.com