FAYETTEVILLE: Bike rally debt-free for 10th anniversary

By Bill Bowden

Posted: September 3, 2009 at 5:51 a.m.

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The annual Bikes, Blues & BBQ motorcycle rally lost money for a third consecutive year in 2008, but early payments from sponsors and vendors for this year's event allowed the organization to pay off its debt this week.

Rally officials borrowed $100,000 from Arvest Bank in 2007 in order to donate to charity that year. At the end of 2008, the festival, billed as the fourth-largest motorcycle rally in the United States, was$149,178 in debt to Arvest and other creditors. But all that has been repaid.

"The money has come in a lot faster than it has in the past," said Bob Corscadden, a spokesman for the rally.

"We were pushing to try to get it in earlier," said Kenneth Mourton, chairman of Bikes, Blues & Barbeque, Inc. "We were wanting to go into the event out of debt."

Online vendor applications at bikesbluesandbbq. org stated that final payment was due June 1, up from the Aug. 31 date of previous years. A 10-by-10-foot booth costs $700.

Neither Corscadden nor Mourton could say how much money had been paid by sponsors or vendors who plan to participate in this year's rally, set for Sept. 23-26. Major sponsors include Coors Lite, Harley-Davidson Motor Co. and Cherokee Casinos of Oklahoma.

"If this year's rally is as well attended as previous years, we expect that we will be able to fully fund this year's rally expenses and re-new our giving to local charities," Mourton said.

This year marks the 10th anniversary for the rally. Since its founding, Bikes, Blues & BBQ has given more than $500,000 to local charities, according to Nelson Driver, executive director. The festival has operated at a loss for four of the seven years since it was incorporated as a nonprofit organization in 2001.

"Dramatically cutting operating expenses and eliminating new capital expenditures have also contributed to retiring the debt before our 10th anniversary rally," Driver said.

A letter from Driver on the rally's Web site states that organizers hope to raise $100,000 for charities this year.

According to the required Internal Revenue Service filings, Bikes, Blues & Barbeque, Inc. had a net loss of $80,938 in 2008 but still gave $2,700 to three charities: $1,200 to the Muscular Dystrophy Association in Joplin, Mo.; $1,000 to the Juvenile Diabetes Association in Fayetteville; and $500 to the Elkins Boxing Club in Elkins.

Annual donations to charity have ranged from zero in 2003 to $135,000 in 2006.

Bikes, Blues & BBQ apparently had $691,728 in gross receipts for 2008, but expenses outweighed income.

The board had incurred additional expenses in 2007 and 2008 for fences, electrical upgrades and van transportation because part of the festival was moved to the University of Arkansas campus. Most of the four-day festival takes place on Dickson Street in central Fayetteville.

The rally lost $24,520 in 2007, but organizers borrowed $100,000 and gave $97,500 to charity, according to that year's IRS filing. The largest donations went to the American Red Cross and the Donald W. Reynolds Boys & Girls Club of Fayetteville, with each receiving $20,000.

Festival organizers have had mixed results with large concerts. They lost more than $100,000 on a Neville Brothers and Blues Traveler concert in the parking lot of Northwest Arkansas Mall in 2003. Bikes, Blues & BBQ didn't have a large concert for three years after that. Performances resumed in 2007, when rally officials contracted with TCB Concerts of Memphis to bring ZZ Top that year and The Allman Brothers Band in 2008.

Mourton said about 7,000 people attended the ZZ Top concert, but only about 3,200 were on hand for the Allman Brothers.

Mourton said Bikes, Blues & BBQ paid about $30,000 for electrical upgrades to the university's Randal Tyson Track Center so that the 2007 and 2008 concerts could be held there. The promoter still owes $15,000 to the festival for that work, he said.

This year, the organization partnered with Brian Crowne, a local concert promoter and co-owner of the Arkansas Music Pavilion in the Northwest Arkansas Mall parking lot. Crowne didn't own the AMP at the time of the 2003 concert. Crowne wants to make the mall area the third venue for this year's rally. He's catering to car enthusiasts, calling it Bikes, Blues and Hot Rods Too.

The centerpiece will be the Formula 1 race car of Marco Andretti, which will be on display. This year's music lineup includes Molly Hatchet, The Marshall Tucker Band, Steve Pryor and Oreo Experience. The daytime events will be free, and children 12 and under will be admitted to the evening concerts free if accompanied by a paying adult.

Mourton said the mall event is sanctioned by the Bikes, Blues & BBQ board of directors, so he hopes all goes well there, but "we are not diverting our energy or focus away from Dickson Street or the track center."

As a nonprofit organization, Mourton said Bikes, Blues & Barbeque, Inc. doesn't have to donate to charity every year, "but we try to give all we can to charity every year."

"We feel like we need a little reserve to get through the winter months," he said, "but it's our goal to give everything we can."

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9, 14 on 09/03/2009

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