A wedding, the Boogeyman and beautiful weather: Biketoberfest 2023 roars on in Daytona
DAYTONA BEACH — Even amid a sea of leather and chrome, a bride still looks lovely in white.
That was the case for the Biketoberfest wedding of Mel and Jim Lantz, newlyweds who tied the knot on Friday in a short ceremony atop the stairs to the cozy upper room at Froggy’s Saloon on Main Street.
Attired in floor-length gowns as they waited on the sidewalk in front of the bar for the wedding to begin, the bride and her maids-of-honor added yet another unusual twist to the fashion statements on display during the four-day motorcycle event that runs through Sunday in Daytona Beach.
Inside, atop the stairs, the bride and groom exchanged vows that they had written, although it was hard for some of the guests (and bar patrons) relegated to the ground floor to hear.
“Say it again, Mel,” shouted one friend, pointing her cellphone video camera toward the top of the stairs. “And say it louder!”
After exchanging rings, applause rang out as the officiant exhorted the couple to “ride on!”
Although the newlyweds met in their hometown of Syracuse, New York, they both are longtime visitors to Bike Week and Biketoberfest.
“Jim’s parents got married here, in this very spot at Froggy’s, in 1986,” Mel said, as she greeted a line of well-wishers in the crowded upstairs room. “We’ve both been to Biketoberfest and Bike Week a lot.”
A Biketoberfest wedding is hard to top, but people-watching was in prime form on Friday, with an array of characters adorned in Halloween-worthy masks amid the gleaming rows of Harley-Davidsons parked along both sides of a thoroughfare also packed with motorcycles.
'You never know what you're going to see'
“See, that’s the kind of stuff you come here to watch,” said Brandon Moyse, 53, perched along the fence outside Main Street Station as a man lumbered past in a Boogeyman Halloween mask. “Stuff like that is the entertainment. You never know what you’re going to see.”
Behind the mask was Anthony Daniels, 57, a toy maker from Orlando who is a regular at both Bike Week and Biketoberfest, strolling Main Street as Jack Skellington, Jason of “Friday the 13th“ movie fame, or other characters.
Even with temps in the pleasant low 80s, Daniels was sweating profusely when he removed the mask.
“It’s hot in here, man,” Daniels said. “You’ve gotta take breaks. But I come out here every year. I’ll be out here until Sunday, definitely.”
Looking on, Moyse said that the harmony that exists among a big gathering of distinctive characters is a main reason that he returns to Biketoberfest each year from his home in Ocala.
“The camaraderie of all these different people, showing love to people that they don’t even know, it’s a beautiful thing,” he said. “It’s about riding and being free and enjoying the peace.”
This year’s event attracted a geographically diverse crowd, judging from an informal survey of license plates on the motorcycles parked along Main Street. The roll call ranged from Georgia and the Carolinas to Montana, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
From sausages to souvenirs, Main Street has it all
On Main Street, those visitors were greeted by cold beer, grilled chicken, sausages and gyros, blaring music from live bands and high-tech motorcycle sound systems as well as a formidable array of souvenirs and riding accessories.
Official Biketoberfest merchandise included T-shirts, shot glasses, doo-rags, patches and ball caps.
When it comes to unofficial merchandise, there were racks of T-shirts emblazoned with statements steeped in biker swagger: “Ride It Like You Stole It”; “Hardly An Angel”; “Sugar Daddy Now Accepting Applications”; “Big Foot Saw Me, But Nobody Believes Him”; among others not fit for family viewing.
What you need to know: 'Going to be a good one': Main Street merchants geared up for Daytona Biketoberfest 2023
Despite the eye-catching inventory, T-shirt sales had been slow on opening day at Biker Brothers, the apparel shop a block west of Atlantic Avenue, said owner Roger Harb.
“Today and tomorrow (Saturday) are really the main days, so hopefully we will make up for it,” Harb said. “Everybody needs to eat, but not everybody wants to buy a T-shirt, but I did what I need to do. So whatever I get, I get. Some things in life you can’t control.”
The outlook was more upbeat at Gyro Guys, the Lakeland-based food vendor dishing out gyros and chicken pitas just west of Grandview Avenue.
“I was really surprised how many people were here for opening day,” said line manager Susan Trapuzzano. “You really couldn’t ask for more beautiful weather.”
The weather also was the main attraction for Anthony Bizzarro, 38, a security guard who moved to Fort Myers this past summer after too many cold winters in New Hampshire.
“You can ride all year,” he said. “That’s the whole reason I moved down here.”
It was Bizzarro’s third Biketoberfest, one that he planned to spend mostly on Main Street.
“Basically, I’m just hanging out, checking out the bikes,” he said. “It’s a great chance to recharge after the kind of year it’s been with the economy and what's going on in the Middle East.
"It's an escape. You can’t beat it.”
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Daytona Biketoberfest sights, sounds keep fans coming to Main Street
