After a few hours chasing cargo bikes at the Disaster Relief Trial (can’t wait to share our video with you Monday morning!) I was glad to switch gears and attend the fun Filmed by Bike festival street party. It looked like the organizers worked hard so that partygoers would have an enjoyable evening with plenty to do. The street behind the Broadway Theater filled up with canopy tents in preparation for rain, but luckily, it only drizzled for a short time.
“For our 20th year anniversary,” said Ayleen Crotty, the film festival organizer, “we just had to bring back this signature part of the history of Filmed by Bike, and I’m happy that we could all party in the streets with a live band, lots of bike groups and vendors coming out to all have fun in the streets.”
The event’s emcee, Meghan Sinnott (known for organizing the Pedalpalooza Bike Summer Festival), has been bringing her trademark good vibes and sweet energy to the street party for years now. “I think that as long as I keep buying wigs, Ayleen will let me go on stage,” said Meghan.
Meghan spoke to a crowd gathered to socialize and dance to the music of Mitch & The Melody Makers, a local 60’s rock ‘n’ roll cover band.
Meghan recommended people visit the interactive photo booth, which turned out to be lots of fun! Jamshed, my friend who helped me with photography throughout the wild evening, and I went and posed for photos. We received a QR code that sends us to a website where photos can be downloaded. Angela Dawn, the owner and operator of the booth said they are no longer printing, to be more ecologically friendly.
Some street partygoers enjoyed island-inspired Asian rice-based sandwiches, sold at the Pidgin Hole food truck. I didn’t personally sample any of it but I was seeing folks eating a lot of that grub everywhere so it must have been really tasty!
Other folks in the crowd spoke to members of the Sorella Forte women’s cycling club about promoting women’s health, fitness and community through recreational and competitive cycling; found out more about Shift, a local organization that promotes bike fun and hosts an online bike event calendar; and visited the booth of the Corvidae cycling club, to pick up some zines, stickers and patches.
It wouldn’t be a Portland biking party without a fun bike ride stopping by, this time the Underground Rave Party Ride, which stopped for about 20 minutes to sample the Filmed by Bike street party, then moved on to other fun dance parties in town.
All in all, a successful event celebrating bikes, film and having fun in a very Portland way!
If you read this on Sunday and still want to catch a screening, the final one of the festival begins at 5:30 pm. See the website for more details.