Organizers deem bike festival a roaring success
Posted on Monday, October 2, 2006
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Bikes, Blues & BBQ 2006
All the stories about this year's Bikes, Blues & BBQ, including daily schedules.
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As the sounds of revving motorcycle engines grew fainter Sunday afternoon, vendors packed up shop and clean-up crews swept up the remains of the biggest ever Bikes Blues & BBQ festival.
Greg Mack, director of adverting and promotions for the event, said the seventh annual bike rally had bigger-than-ever crowds and seemed to start earlier and last longer.
Some hotels reported bikers checking in the weekend before, he said, and bike traffic could still be seen on Dickson Street Sunday afternoon.
Based on Web site traffic the events Web site had about 15 million hits Mack had ordered 30 percent more event T-shirts than last year. But even that wasnt enough.
After the first day, I had to order 1, 000 more shirts, he said. We sold out of those before 5 p. m. Saturday.
Even with record crowds, Mack said the event seemed to be fairly incident-free.
From my feelings and from the comments I got, people seemed to be in a good mood, he said. All of the venues said they were having really good business, and they seemed more prepared this year.
By spreading the festival across town in three separate venues, Dickson Street, the Northwest Arkansas Mall, and the Tyson Track Center, Mack said the event was less congested.
People always end up back on Dickson Street at night, he said, but adding the track center to the list of venues helped with the congestion during the day time.
The adjustments we made were successful, he said.
Lt. Bryan Waters of the Fayetteville Police Department said he did not know the official number of arrests that occurred over the weekend but said the event went off without major incidents.
I think everybody had a good time and, on the whole, there werent many problems, he said.
Dora Fields, a vendor from Tulsa, Okla., said this was her fourth year to attend the festival.
We love this show, she said. The people here are always good to us.
Fields said the crowds were much bigger this year and people were hanging out longer than in previous years. Despite more people, however, Fields said her sales were slightly down.
There are more vendors, she said. And people just arent buying as much.
Volunteers, including members of the Fayetteville High School Band and Red Cross, helped Sunday morning to return Dickson Street to its former state.
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