FAYETTEVILLE — Since the announcement of plans for a new motorcycle rally in town — this one marketed to women — a flurry of opposition has revved-up in the blogosphere, social networking sites and even voiced by one public offcial.
Earlier this week, Matthew Petty, an alderman from Ward 2, was considering sponsoring a City Council resolution opposing the Bikes, Babes and Bling rally due to what he sees as a deluge of noise, traffic and a festival “out of touch with Fayetteville’s character.” Since then, he’s reconsidered the council approach.
“The event is a sour lemon for me, but at this time I am still not sure if a council resolution opposing the event is the best solution,” Petty said last week in an e-mail response. “I am not sure what it would accomplish because the council does not have the authority to prevent a festival from occurring. I suspect there are more creative ways to mitigate the negative consequences of a second motorcycle rally, but at this time, I am not sure what they would be.”
Bikes, Babes and Bling first went public when the Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion Commission gave the new festival a $20,000 seed-money grant in early November. The motorcycle rally will ride on the coattails of the decade-old Bikes, Blues and BBQ. Like the older event, the Babes rally organizers plan to donate some of the money it earns to local charities. The 2009 Bikes, Blues and BBQ raised $48,500 for more than 30 local charities.
Since opposition surfaced, Petty has encouraged those wishing to voice concerns to send them to the Fayetteville City Clerk’s office.
“We have received some e-mails for us to forward to the City Council and/or mayor,” said Sondra Smith, Fayetteville’s city clerk. “I don’t have time to read all of them, but the ones I have read seem to be in opposition of any more bike festivals.”
Organizers of the new rally say the opposition concerns them, and they’re willing to hear everyone out.
“As of right now, we really don’t have a comment on the opposition,” Coleson Burns, one of the organizers for Bikes, Babes and Bling, said on Friday. “We just want their voices.”
“For any new event, there’s going to be this type of situation where it’s not received by the whole community,” Burns added. “It’s really just an open discussion.”
The original rally has had its own critics over the years based on the congestion and noise that aff ects area businesses and residents. Rally organizers have met at various times with those upset with the rally’s impact and in recent years the opposing sides have settled into a bit of a truce.
The new rally is set for July, normally a down time for tourism in Fayetteville. That means much planning is still ahead, giving plenty of time for fans and critics of biker rallies to work through some differences.
“We’re in the very early stages of all the planning,” Burns said. “We do want to hear their concerns.”