Bike Party draws host of costumed characters

Today may be Halloween, but a crowd of hundreds of vampires, ghosts, skeletons and penguins — just to name a few costumed characters — biked around the city this past Friday, passing near campus by North Calvert Street and East University Parkway before riding down San Martin Drive. The unexpected gathering, almost a week in advance of the holiday, had an explanation: the Baltimore Halloween Brew-Ha-Ha Bike Party.

Started by local resident Tim Barnett, the Baltimore Bike Parties have become a significant feature of Baltimore’s cultural landscape.

“The first one was in April of last year, and approximately 70 people attended. By October, it was already almost as big as it is today,” Barnett said.

On the last Friday of every month, thousands of people with a common enjoyment of cycling gather to attend Bike Party, which ends up at an after-party filled with food trucks and loud music.

Supported by the Baltimore Police Department, the bikers are free to flow through traffic-free streets for a few hours of fun.

Last Friday’s event saw between 1,300 and 1,500 people participate.

“If you have a bike, there’s no excuse not to come to Bike Party,” Barnett told Baltimore City Paper.

According to Baltimore City Paper, even Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake participated in the 1980s-themed June bike party, along with 1,700 other bikers. This month’s theme was Halloween. “I thought it was really big for how cold it was, and I thought that was awesome,” sophomore Maddie Goodman said. “I was super impressed with a lot of the costumes that people thought of and put together.”

The ride started at St. Mary’s Park in Mt. Vernon near the Walters Museum. The crowd then took to North Avenue and Greenmount Avenue before biking northward on North Calvert Street past the Homewood Campus. Riding along East University Parkway for a few blocks before Bike Party before heading towards Hampden through San Martin Drive, eventually arriving at the final destination: the after-party.

This year, Union Craft Brewery hosted the after-party. Providing 18 taps especially for the occasion, the bike party promoted local brews at an unbeatable price: $10 for four beers or $3 for one.

“It was probably the most fun bike party I’ve been to, especially the after-party,” Goodman said. “I thought the DJ was killer, he had the coolest music that you don’t normally hear.”

At the after-party, attendees were able to show off their costumes in a runway competition.

With prizes from local shops Light Street Cycles, Twenty20 Cycling Co., NuBohemia and Race Pace Bicycles, the winners were given many varieties of accessories — such as lights, pumps, locks and speakers — for their beloved bikes. A brand new bike was granted to first prize.

This year’s winners were Nicole DeWald, an arts administrator, curator and production designer in Baltimore, and Debbie Gioia, a social work professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. The two sported giant colorfully-painted skeletons that attached onto their backs.

“I make plenty of costumes myself, but this was the result of a team project. My team is called the Make Believers,” DeWald said.

The team initially created the costume for the annual Day of the Dead race in May, which is organized by the American Visionary Art Museum. According to DeWald, the race in the spring showcases bicycle-powered-sculptures.

“The skeleton costumes are puppets, I’m all about puppets,” DeWald said. “They were decorated with the Day of the Dead artwork.”

DeWald was sanguine about the the impact of the Bike Parties on the city.

“The first one I did was in May, and it was Western-themed. We started and ended at the Streetcar Museum. They opened the museum which lots of us had never seen before at the after party, and I was not expecting that. It was clear that the people there were volunteers at the museum and they were so welcoming of this mob of people,” she said. “That’s part of the incredible success of the Bike Parties: it is introducing people to the cultural resources of the city.”

The Baltimore Bike Party has clearly become a unifying factor for the many social groups which make up the Baltimorean community.

“There is so much conversation that happens while you’re rolling: it’s a very social event. It means a lot to me that there’s been such an increasingly positive response from the communities we ride through,” DeWald said.

DeWald further noted how the whole Baltimore community has gotten behind Bike Party’s signature rallying cry.

“When I started, it used to be us who would scream ‘BIKE PARTY,’ but now the residents themselves are yelling ‘BIKE PARTY,’” DeWald added. “There’s nothing better than a row of children who give you a high five and are having fun.”

Within the Hopkins community, the event has grown in popularity over the last year.

“A lot of my friends would go to every Bike Party last year, every single one,” Goodman said. “Finally, this summer, I gave in: found a cheap bike on Craigslist, went to the one in July, and had a blast.”

Junior Greg Lanter, who has been involved with Bike Party since August of 2012, can no longer count on two hands how many times he has gone.

“This was, oh jeez, the 13th time...yeah, 13,” he said.

Lanter’s long-lasting commitment to Bike Party does not stop there.

“I’m technically a ride guide, I have an orange flag. If there is a medical emergency, the volunteers come to me and I call the medical sweep who’s in the back,” he explained.

Bike Party, many participants attest, is an unprecedented opportunity to both have fun and explore Baltimore.

“I know that when I go to the Bike Party and pass the tougher neighborhoods and see people who live in those areas cheer, it makes me feel connected to them in a way that I wouldn’t if I hadn’t been on the Bike Party,” Goodman said.

Others agreed with that sentiment.

“That’s part of what Tim wanted; to get people to go places they wouldn’t have gone to otherwise,” Lanter added.

Barnett said that was exactly what he intended.

“The goal is really to unify Baltimore and break down those neighborhoods that we kind of get stuck in: the idea that you don’t get pass this street, or this neighborhood. Bike Party is the opportunity allowing change to occur, and people to experience places in the city that they’d never been to,” Barnett said. “For university students like Hopkins [students], it’s a great way to get out and see the city and understand what Baltimore is all about in a positive way.”

But Bike Party is not just about fun, it also raises awareness for the need for more bike paths and greater safety and security on the streets, Gioia noted.

“I like that they made Bike Party a fun experience, but still bring attention to the need for more bike paths and safer access for bicycles,” Gioia said.