Bikers cruise along Dickson Street during the opening night of the 2012 Bikes, Blues & BBQ motorcycle rally.
Photo: Todd Gill, Flyer staff
Bikes, Blues & BBQ organizers will once again donate proceeds from the annual motorcycle rally to local charities, event director Joe Giles announced Wednesday.
Rally officials will distribute the funds Jan. 11 during a ceremony for sponsors, volunteers, and representatives of the various charities chosen for funding.
Specific donation amounts have not yet been announced, but officials said the combination of donations and total funds raised during the 2012 rally will exceed $185,000.
Organizers did not hold a donation ceremony in 2011, but said local charities raised around $64,000 on their own during the rally using vendor space donated by the Bikes, Blues & BBQ board.
Officials said they’ve donated over $500,000 to local charities since the rally’s inception in 2000.
The 2013 Bikes, Blues & BBQ rally is scheduled for Sept. 18-21.
So less than $.50 a biker (according to their inflated attendance math) to put up with a week of B, BB, & BS!!
I know a lot of residents that would pledge more than that to keep the crap out!
Count me in for a very generous contribution!
Then put your money where your mouth is crab apples. I’m sure Flyer will hold your donation.
I will donate to a Kickstarter to keep BBBBQ out of Fayetteville. The Flyer is welcome to hold it in escrow until the Kickstarter is successful or fails.
I’m not a big fan of the new Flyer layout. I complain about lots, so just throw that on the pile.
glutenfree – I’d love to know what you’re specifically unhappy with. The biggest changes were made under the hood to make the site responsive to fit into all types of browsers – from desktops to mobile phones. The most visible change was switching the homepage to show all the latest posts in one column instead of dividing them into categorical columns. Outside of that, I’ve tried to get most elements back to the way they were before. I’m still working out some kinks and I’m open to suggestions.
Hi Todd,
The layout doesn’t seem to be compatible with IE8 – no images for the homepage show up, but the links are active, and I can click blindly to open a story and navigate from there. When I open in Firefox I don’t have a problem. (And I realize I should update IE. I also shouldn’t look at the Flyer while at work.. but since I do, I’m stuck browsing from IE8).
Thanks!
Thanks, Katie. I’m looking at the site using IE8 and it’s working fine, but I’ll look into it some more. Are images only a problem on the homepage? Do they work on a category page?
You bet – once I’m past the blank homepage, I can click to a category page or any article and view it just fine.
Its mainly a feng shui thing. It all looks smaller to me than before.
I like the sponsor tweets on the bottom of the page. Got some sweet lunch deals recently because I pay attn to that.
The new format loads wonderfully works over here! Humdallah!
The site looks great on my Android tablet! I wish the “Recent Comments” pane had a little more info, though.
Glad to hear it, Mike. That’s a pretty small area to try and fit a lot of information into. I tried to just include the basics to ensure it looks good on all devices, but I’ll see what I can do.
The 50 Most Recent Comments page includes avatars, more characters and the story title.
The changes look nice, both on my tablet and my PC. Thanks!
Really??….$500,000 since 2000, that’s something to brag about! I run a SMALL non profit program and have given away over $1,000,000 in the last six years in NW Arkansas, pretty much by myself.. I don’t mind BBBBQ, but they shouldn’t be too thrilled about what they are reinvesting in the community.
Maybe you should replace BBBQ with something else… I don’t think anyone wants to build walls around the city to keep out events and bikers… I think everyone wants a more community driven event with the same aspirations but with out the facade of a faux charity event with noisy, unruly greasers.
Suckers who buy what those folks are selling are suckers.
I’m a huge participant in the biker community that Fayetteville has. Charity isn’t all that benefits from BBBQ. Local resturants, hotels, gas stations, etc all benefit from having that many people come into town. They post the dates a year or more in advance. Take a vacation or avoid the heavily trafficked areas that week. Suck it up so other people can benefit from what you choose not to.
Thank god for BBBq. I work in a restaurant on Dickson. I saved some money that i made during the event and It has kept me employed and helped me pay my rent and feed my kids through the slow winter. Take a vacation during bbb if you need to or can afford to. Must be nice. A lot of people and businesses depend on this event to get through slow times. it has a bigger impact on peoples lives than you might realize. I am greatfull to the event and so is my family.
hmmm, $185,000 in a single year, but only $500,000 over 12 years… so, in other words, lots of years with very little benefit to charity.
math is funny that way
Bikers are generous people! Way cool, It feels great hearing about all of these events that actually do good in the world.
Thanks Emily and Jason D. It is crazy to me that people want to refuse to see the economical impact this event has on the WHOLE State of Arkansas. Not to mention the amount posted in the flyer does not include all the money the event allows nonprofits to make on their own with free vendor space. There are event held that I do t believe in but I keep my mouth shut because it benefits someone, somehow. 13 years of building and each year gets better with more opportunity to give and business able to profit!
Dont forget that BBBQ
is a national organizationthat also gets alot of the money and probably has the last say on the annual budget. So dont blame the local people that run this event year around when thenational organizationmore than likely decides when, where, and to whom the money goes to.Staff correction: Bikes, Blues, & BBQ is not a national organization. It is operated solely in Northwest Arkansas.
Thanks FF. Accuracy matters.
If they only operate in Northwest Arkansas then why is their another one in Pekin,Illinois that has the same name
here is the link for it:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bikes-Blues-BBQ/392283860829172
Srsly? That is obviously unrelated.
How come there’s a Razorback PIZZA and a Razorback FOOTBALL TEAM?!?!? Clearly related!
I think you’ve made an ID -10-T error.
I don’t enjoy BBBQ, but it can’t be denied that it is good for local business. I think one week out of 52 is not a bad price to pay for being able to increase revenue in the area.
I really wish that Fayetteville could have an event this size that isn’t geared just towards bikers though. An arts festival would be nice (visual and interative art, live music). http://bayoucityartfestival.com/ http://www.artfair.org/
A fun 5k event would be great. This one in Austin is neat. A combination of a festival with music an vendors and a crazy 5k. http://www.keepaustinweirdfest.com/
Or a event like they have at Miss. State. http://www.msubulldogbash.org/ I’ve been there and it was really fun. Lots of family events during the day and food and art vendors. The event is free to the public. Largest free outdoor concert in the State I believe. It is held on a night before football game.