Ride-N-Boogie gives bikers another option
Posted on Sunday, October 1, 2006
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Bikes, Blues & BBQ 2006
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- More than motorcycles (09-29-2006)
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Although this year’s Bikes, Blues & BBQ festival was bigger than ever with three venues spread across town, a separate motorcycle rally dubbed Ride-N-Boogie gave bike enthusiasts yet a fourth destination to attend.
“ We’re here for the biking community, ” said event coordinator Shane Crawford of Springdale. “ It doesn’t matter what kind of bike you ride, just as long as you ride. ”
The inaugural rally took place at the Fayetteville Municipal Airport and featured vendor booths, a food court, beer tents, the “ Best in the Midwest” bike show, wrestling and concerts.
“ I’m the publisher of The Ride magazine and my No. 1 goal for this event is to promote my magazine, ” he said. “ We do feature articles on bikes and we have a calendar of events. But I think the biggest part of what we offer is our membership card. We’ve joined with a couple hundred retailers that give discounts to our members. ”
Crawford said membership cards cost $ 39. 99 and include a subscription to his magazine.
“ We’re not here to compete with Bikes, Blues & BBQ, ” he said. “ In fact, I asked if they were interested in working together in conjunction with the magazine and they denied. They said they had more than they could handle. That’s why I started my own rally. ”
While attendance to Ride-N-Boogie did not meet Crawford’s expectations, he said the event had a good turnout for its first year.
“ I don’t think a lot of people knew about this, ” he said. “ It didn’t meet my expectations, but that’s probably because my expectations are so high. ”
Admission to the rally was $ 5 per person. Crawford said a large portion of his proceeds will be donated to the Peace At Home Family Shelter in Springdale.
“ We’re not here to compete with Bikes, Blues & BBQ, ” he said. “ We think very highly of what they’re doing because it benefits the city. We wanted to benefit the city, too, and that’s why we rented out this area of the airport. Otherwise, we would have had it in a field somewhere. ”
Crawford says the Bikes, Blues & BBQ venue is not much different from his in the sense that they’re both family-friendly rallies.
“ There’s nothing here that you couldn’t bring a 10-year-old to, ” he said.
While some vendors chose to be part of the Bikes, Blues & BBQ venue, others chose Ride-N-Boogie.
“ We attempted to set our booth up at Bikes, Blues & BBQ, but it would have cost us $ 5, 800, nonnegotiable. ” said Rodney Roberts of Rodney’s Cycle House. “ Plus, we wouldn’t even have enough room to roll our bikes in and out of our truck each night. We didn’t think we’d be able to sell enough to cover the cost. ”
While the crowds at Ride-N-Boogie didn’t compare with the those at Bikes, Blues & BBQ, Roberts said he made the right decision.
“ We’ve got the people, the music and all the razzle-dazzle, ” he said. “ It’s got a good start. ”
“ My fear is that Bikes, Blues & BBQ is starting to sell out the show. I think, potentially, this could be a good thing because now Bikes, Blues & BBQ has some competition. Maybe it could be a driving force to help them reduce their prices. ”
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