Remember back in November when the folks at Bikes, Blues & BBQ announced a sister rally called Bikes, Babes & Bling?
That was a crazy day.
After that, the event was headed to the City Council before it hit a roadblock and instead, turned into a long discussion about the permitting process for future events in the city.
Remember?
Last weekend, Bikes, Babes & Bling happened in Fayetteville. The three-day event, funded in part by $20,000 in A&P funds, took place from Thursday-Saturday on Dickson Street.
KHBS/KHOG reported on Tuesday that “the city” estimated the economic impact of the first year event was close to $430,000.
Rally event director Coleson Burns told NWAOnline on Saturday that they won’t have an estimate on how many people attended the rally for a couple weeks.
“We’ll try to find out through the amount of trash generated, and through beer sales,” said Burns.
It took Bikes, Blues & BBQ ten years to become as large as it is today, and anyone who visited Dickson St. over the weekend knows that Bikes, Babes & Bling did not attract the 15-25,000 bikers that it hoped it might in the first year, much less anywhere near as many as big-sister (brother?) rally Bikes, Blues & BBQ attracts each fall.
Organizers are calling the first year rally a success. Did you attend? What was your impression of Bikes, Babes & Bling in its first year?
Hardly noticed it happened at all.
Kinda boring really…
Pretty nonimpressive, really. I don’t really think Fayetteville can support two bike events. Regardless of what the promoters say, biker babes seems like a pretty small niche to me.
Obviously this event was not for just the average person off the street. It had a very targeted demographic. I would be interested in hearing the impression of at least one female biker who participated, either a local or preferably someone who came in from out of town.
Hardly noticed it going on. I’d rather see a hot rod event myself, at least those are still mostly custom creations. BB&BBQ went from custom rides to stock Harleys, Hondas and BMWs after a couple years with the same factory sold customizations.
Friday at 4:30′ish when you think things might be revving up…crickets really. Parked directly in fron of Kingfish..lot mostly empty. Didn’t see many bikes or bikers.
the whole deal sounded pretty lame and sounds like that what it turned out to be
I live downtown, so I get a sense of how many bikes are in town because it directly relates to the amount of sleep I get.
I slept quite well during Bikes, Babes & Bling.
$20,000…I didn’t even see 20 bikes! What an embarrassing waste, and to call it a success is a lie and an insult to the tax payer.
Quiet, uneventful; it was awesome. Let’s keep the quiet biker fest and ditch the crappy one in october.
LAME….What did they spend 20,000 dollars on? Tent rentals? I saw as many bikes parked in front of Jose’s as there would have been on any other weekend night. I highly doubt that an extra 430,000 dollars was made.
I live 2 blocks away from Dickson, and I know what is going on in my area. I went out both nights, and can safely say that I did not see more than 200-300 people out at night for this…if even that many. The beer garden was so empty at all times. I feel bad for the vendors who wasted their time for this rally.
It was stupid planning in the first place. To think that groups of women are going to travel by themselves to this thing? They ride with guys, not alone usually. Furthermore, this was planned on 4th of July weekend. Did the planner not think about this? That is family/back yard/lake time…not this. I think this was a failed idea from the start, and they need to go ahead and be done with it. They could have made more on paid parking if the parking lot was that format now.
@High
They estimated the economic impact to the city was $430,000, they didn’t say which direction. :)
It would’ve been huge if they’d stuck with the same kind of Babe shows as the first couple of BBBQs. Common now, surely you must remember the wet tshirt contests at Joses, and the let-me-bend-over-and-show-you-my-thong show on the big stage in the WAC parking lot. The latter was filmed and actually showed on CAT. Family-friendly rules are interfering with biddness, I say! Let’s get back to the tried and true model–raw, nekked, and drunk on yer ass. Woo-hoo!
20k bones woulda bought lots of rainbow bacon.
bikes babes and FAIL
If they plan on continuing this attempt at a festival, they need to drop the word “Bling”. Not only is “Bling” a word currently considered “five minutes ago”, but it is for people not sophisticated enough to say the word ‘extravagance’. If this rather quiet event is to continue, the planners need to get with the times, stop acting like they ‘get’ the urban culture, and not rush to use fad words to make them seem trendy. In ten years, the word “Bling” might be in the dictionary, but I guarantee you won’t hear it lest it to be in reference.
I showed up at the rally early, and then later on in the night. It was just as busy during both times. (And when I say busy, I don’t mean “busy” per say.)
When I first learned that Fayetteville had set aside funding for an event called “Bikes Babes and Bling,” well… who wouldn’t laugh? The whole thing just sounded completely ridiculous. Not to mention, we were actually paying for it??
I work at a hotel here in Fayetteville. Vendors poured in with high anticipation (that’s probably where the “economic impact” came from). I saw these same people sitting in tents bored out of their minds waiting on people to show. At check out, not a single vendor I came in contact with left with any positive things to say. It was so uneventful, and the comments about it were so negative, I don’t think there would be much of a turnout if another happened. So please Fayetteville, do not waste your time and OUR money on this next year.
If you would like to see a lot of women with smiles on their faces visit the PHOTO ALBUM page at http://www.arkansasbiker.info. You will see 140 photos taken at the event and the ladies seem to be having fun. The event was geared towards women so it might be considered boring for the guys who were dragged there by their wife or girlfriend. I’ve attended a lot of rallies and can say that it was very, very organized. The only problem that I saw came from Mother Nature but she will have her way. I think that it would be helpful to have test rides set up for the ladies like at the Bikes, Blues, & BBQ but with smaller, more practical motorcycles like the Suzuki S40 (650) which is only 360 lbs and is easier for a woman to pick up in case of a fall.