Keeping Fayetteville Funky: Bikes, Blues & BBQ

As many of the regular First Born readers know, we moved to Fayetteville Arkansas about three months ago to work with students at the Wesley Foundation at the University of Arkansas. Fayetteville is a town that neither of us had ever been to before we moved here. At the foot of the Ozarks in Northwest Arkansas, this is a classic college town of about 50,000 people.

We really like living here. The hills are beautiful. Every Saturday we go to the Farmer’s Market. We’ve already been to two Razorback football games. But one thing we are learning…

This is a funky town.

So tonight we’re beginning what I hope will be a come and go series on the blog called Keeping Fayetteville Funky. While so much (if not most) of this blog deals with serious matters, from time to time it is good to just look and laugh. And I believe we need some more smiles on First Born Son.

And for our first installment we’re going to take a peek at the annual Bikes, Blues and BBQ festival that ended here today. Remember, I said that this is a town of about 50,000 people. Well, for the four days over 350,000 people and their motorcycles descended on Fayetteville. That’s right… well over a quarter of a million people.

For the last four nights this entire city has been literally rumbling. For 24-7, up and down the highway in front of our apartment, we've heard nothing but the thunder and the whine of thousands of motorcycles.

So yesterday Jenn and I grabbed the camera and headed down to ground zero: Dickson Street. The best way to describe the scene is a combination of Spring Break, the State Fair and Mardi Gras for anyone with a Harley... complete with parades, beer, vendors, scantly clad women, and even one guy who - in the spirit of Fat Tuesday - tried to get Jenn to “earn some beads” (her response: “Not gonna happen”).

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, then a YouTube is worth a blog post. Some people may find a couple of bits to be, well... vulgar. But we’re just trying to report what we saw.

Welcome to Funky Town.