Where to start, and where to end?
Oct. 13th, 2007 08:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rebeccmeisterWell, today was the Tour de Fat, a bike [beer] festival put on by New Belgium Brewery, makers of Fat Tire beer. They put on these shows in a number of towns throughout the Southwest, and all proceeds from the event benefit local bicycling organizations. Today's event benefited the Mountain Bike Association of America and the Tempe Bicycle Action Group, a group that I'm halfway involved with. It was an excellent event in so many ways: the folks from NBB who run the show did an incredibly smooth job, all of the volunteers were awesome (especial high-fives to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
trywhy and faisdodo), and people came out of the woodwork to celebrate. Seriously. I have to wonder where all of those people go on the other 364 days of the year, because we rarely see that many biker-people in one place, all in celebration of the bike. I almost felt like I was at home, though without the cloudy weather or green-gray. There were some pretty awesome costumes as well, and it was a perfect opportunity to bust out the ol' bright green boots. I also had a chance to start to get to know some of the other characters who are part of other biking organizations in Arizona, which will be useful in the long run. It's always good to meet other like-minded people.
The other thing I really liked about the event is NBB's commitment to having a minimized environmental impact: the cups that the beer was served in were made of corn resin, which is biodegradable, and they managed to find someone who agreed to compost all of the compostable materials and utensils, something that's unheard of around here. [As one of the final trash-people, I can vouch for the fact that we produced a surprisingly small amount of trash compared to what will be composted and recycled] The event was solar-powered, and NBB encouraged folks to sign a pledge to ride a bike instead of driving (they even gave away a bicycle to one of the pledge-signers). This sort of thing really stands out in Tempe because it establishes a very different norm from what typically happens at such events: if we really want to change how people think and behave, we have to keep on exposing them to examples of that positive change, and we have to keep on celebrating it. Only then can lower-impact lifestyles hope to become a new norm.
At one point during the festival, one of the announcers specifically talked about how he realizes that it's hard to ride a bike in a city that was built outward instead of up, and I have to say I appreciated that recognition in particular.
Yeah. It was a great day. And now I am definitely tired and ready for sleep.
trywhy and faisdodo), and people came out of the woodwork to celebrate. Seriously. I have to wonder where all of those people go on the other 364 days of the year, because we rarely see that many biker-people in one place, all in celebration of the bike. I almost felt like I was at home, though without the cloudy weather or green-gray. There were some pretty awesome costumes as well, and it was a perfect opportunity to bust out the ol' bright green boots. I also had a chance to start to get to know some of the other characters who are part of other biking organizations in Arizona, which will be useful in the long run. It's always good to meet other like-minded people.The other thing I really liked about the event is NBB's commitment to having a minimized environmental impact: the cups that the beer was served in were made of corn resin, which is biodegradable, and they managed to find someone who agreed to compost all of the compostable materials and utensils, something that's unheard of around here. [As one of the final trash-people, I can vouch for the fact that we produced a surprisingly small amount of trash compared to what will be composted and recycled] The event was solar-powered, and NBB encouraged folks to sign a pledge to ride a bike instead of driving (they even gave away a bicycle to one of the pledge-signers). This sort of thing really stands out in Tempe because it establishes a very different norm from what typically happens at such events: if we really want to change how people think and behave, we have to keep on exposing them to examples of that positive change, and we have to keep on celebrating it. Only then can lower-impact lifestyles hope to become a new norm.
At one point during the festival, one of the announcers specifically talked about how he realizes that it's hard to ride a bike in a city that was built outward instead of up, and I have to say I appreciated that recognition in particular.
Yeah. It was a great day. And now I am definitely tired and ready for sleep.
