Less than 24 hours from now, the amount of motorcycles, leather, prison-tats, and t-shirts with eagles on them in Fayetteville will increase by about 10,000% when the annual Bikes, Blues & BBQ rally begins on Wednesday.
For some of you, that means heading downtown to be a part of the action, while others will be setting up shop in a watering hole with a view of the street for some prime bike/people watching and a game of hipster biker bingo.
Of course, some of you will crawl into a fetal position and wait for the storm of motorcycle exhaust and the wall of sound that the rally brings with it to pass. This post is for you.
Earlier this week, we listed the full event schedule and the music schedule for this year’s rally. But because we realize that kickin’ it with 300 thousand or so bikers isn’t everyone’s idea of a fun way to spend the next four days, we wanted to provide an alternative.
With as many bikers as will be in Fayetteville this week, there really is no way to avoid the rally altogether if you stay in town.
But here are a few ideas for those of you who can’t stand it that may help you at least co-exist with what has become the state’s largest tourist attraction while it takes over our city for the next few days.
- Get out of town: If you aren’t a fan of Bikes, Blues & BBQ, the most sure fire way to avoid it completely is to get the heck out of this place. If you get started early, you can also rent your house out to a visiting biker and make enough money to pay for your vacation. Follow the Razorbacks over to Tuscaloosa, day-trip over to the Gentry Wildlife Safari or hop a plane to Mexico with the money you made renting your house to a biker. From what we’ve heard, bikers make pretty good house guests.
- Go off the beaten path: Bikers will be everywhere, but they will definitely be concentrated to the South around Dickson St. and the track center, and to the North near the mall area. If you’re looking to avoid them, head out to the East or West sides of town and check out a place you’ve never been to. I’ve heard JJ’s Grill & Chill is good, and I’ve never been to Wing Stop. Might be a good weekend to check some of these places out. Can’t say they will be biker-free, but they will likely be a little more normal.
- Go to the movies: The area around the movie theatre certainly won’t be biker free, but movies are made for escapism. The surround sound will block out any motorcycle rumblings, and the darkened theatre and a couple hours of entertainment might take your mind off what’s going on downtown. Plus, Wednesday night The Wizard of Oz will be playing for the first time in High Def at Malco.
- Chill at home: You’re busy as hell, and you’re probably always running from one place to another doing stuff. Take the weekend off to catch up on your Netflix or DVR, or have some friends over for some football watching or porch-chilling or Scrabble or whatever it is you and your friends do. If you live in the downtown area, maybe you should head over to your friend’s house that lives in some other part of town. If you don’t have any friends that don’t live downtown, a few of you can come over to my place. If you don’t have any friends, give up. On life.
- Hit the trails: If you haven’t checked out the bike trails in Fayetteville yet, and you are looking for a biker-free zone to spend the weekend, you might as well hit them up. Motor-bikers aren’t allowed on the bike trails, so there’s that, plus, the trails are really awesome. You could also take your dog down there.
Probably the best thing you can do when one of the worlds largest bike rallies invades your town is to just suck it up, head down there, and embrace it.
What I’ve found is that the people who show up, for the most part, are really nice. And checking out some of the crazy characters and weird bikes that end up downtown at the rally can be pretty entertaining. Especially after a few adult beverages.
Plus, as far as I’m concerned, you can’t really argue with a funnel cake no matter what the occasion.
We understand that some people are just not into it and that’s totally cool. If you are one of the people who voted “It’s lame” in our current poll, how do you spend Bikes, Blues & BBQ week?
