Bikefest returns to Atlantic Beach for ‘love’, ‘peace’ and to enjoy ‘the biker community.’
The Atlantic Beach Black Pearl Cultural Heritage and Bike Festival rode into town this Friday, bringing with it roaring engines, tons of vendors, flashy motorcycles and smiling faces ready to reunite with old friends not seen since before the pandemic.
The event, commonly referred to as “Black Bike Week,” is a staple for Atlantic Beach and there is good reason for that, as there is years of history to back up the fact that Atlantic Beach serves as an annual home for thousands of bikers from mostly surrounding states.
“Atlantic Beach has always been a combination of African American people, simply because in the years past, we were not allowed to go to other parts of the beach,” Gwendolyn Robinson of Charlotte, North Carolina said while sitting on her Harley at Bike Fest. “So Atlantic Beach has always been pretty much where Black people could go. And so over the years, the bike rally has always been around Memorial Day. There’s been a lot of obstacles in terms of traffic, you know, deviations and a lot of different types of things, like law enforcement, a lot of things, and the NAACP and all that got involved, but at the end of the day, it’s about love and peace and trying to enjoy the biker community.”
The city of Myrtle Beach has a history of opposition to Bikefest. The city implemented a traffic loop that forced all traffic on Ocean Boulevard to run south, away from Atlantic Beach, causing much of the traffic to go north to Highway 31 on the outskirts of town.
This year, however, Myrtle Beach has not implemented the traffic loop.
This traffic loop grabbed the attention of the NAACP, leading to a 2018 lawsuit that resulted in the traffic loop being recognized as discriminatory.
Black Bike Week attracts both independent bikers and bike clubs.
Lante Marbury of Delaware has been attending Bikefest for 19 years, but goes to biker rallies all over the country. “When you’re in a bike club, that’s what you do,” he said. “Last month, [Black Bike Week] was in Daytona. ... We have the round up every year. It’s never in the same spot so they vote on where they’re gonna have it at and one year it might be Pennsylvania, the next year might be in Texas.”
Marbury is a part of a bike club called the Delaware Rough and Ready. “Basically over the years, when some of y’all ride together, you decide ‘that’s out club.’ It just starts like that,” he said.
There were people of all ages enjoying themselves at the Atlantic Beach festival. There were children in strollers, young adults dancing to music and older bikers people-watching while sitting on their motorcycles.
“I like the camaraderie. Everybody comes out and enjoys themselves. No violence, no nothing, so I like that,” Anthony Dove from Gadsden, South Carolina, said.
Dr. Stewart Darby, a family practitioner from Irmo, South Carolina, was sitting outside of his camper with his family watching the bikers go by. “We’ll be here every day. [Saturday] is gonna be really busy. We wait for the sun to come out,” he said as the clouds began to clear and more bikers began to roll in after Friday’s rainstorm.
Black Bike Week lovers think of the long weekend at Atlantic Beach as a vacation.
Bobby Mack of Charleston, South Carolina brought his nephew, Derek Carson of Bronx, New York to relax and enjoy the festival. Mack said he loves attending because “all the Black people come together and I’m an ocean-lover.”
Travis Campbell of Virginia says he enjoys the “ambiance” of Bike Fest. “It’s just guys that ride bikes, get together and hangout and have fellowship, brotherhood,” he said.
This year, bikers were hanging out not only at Atlantic Beach, but in North Myrtle Beach as well. The Tru-Ikonz Motorcycle Club had a party in North Myrtle Beach in a parking garage designated to a bunch of rentals that many of them were staying in.
