 Well, it’s certainly been an interesting decade, with Maverick at the helm Bike Week has come a long way from just doing a couple of rides during the days and spending the nights either in the local pubs, or sitting on the grass outside of Wazza’s bar at Carrara watching grainy reruns of “Easyrider’ and “Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man” projected onto the side of a truck, whilst having drinks with a few mates accompanied by the lone security guard and her Rottweiler as we waited for the evening meal of pizza to be delivered.
In some ways it’s a pity it had to change, but in order to continue Bike Week had to evolve, even so, for the first four or five years I am sure Mav was behind the eight ball and struggling to break even, then all of a sudden it just seemed to take off, the crowds were coming in through the gate and that in turn encouraged new stall holders and dealers to turn up.
New events and concepts were introduced each year and Bike Week went from being just a locally known event to one that was quickly gaining international recognition, fortunately, the big plus throughout the years, was, with Mav being a biker himself he understood what bikers wanted from a show and tried to give it to them. A good example was the introduction of the Chopper Show, and I’m sure this served in no small part to put Aussie chopper builders who brought their creations to the show into the limelight and really showed the world that they were up there with the best of them.
Along with all the positive things there were of course bound to be a few negatives, and as has happened in the last couple of years, we have seen the total overkill of police security and liquor licence restrictions , this was something that Mav had no control over, and it really pisses me off that those to blame are faceless bludgers that I can’t grab by the throat and explain to them that I am old enough to take responsibility for my own actions, and, that they are stuffing up my life by imposing all their phobias on me or that they are simply promoting their own pecuniary interests by inventing new ad hoc restrictions, seems to me with the way its going in Australia right now that it might be time for another Eureka Stockade.
Ok, so having said that and had my personal dummy spit about rules and regulations, there’s no doubt by now that most people who have been to Bike week would know that it has technically been sold, and that there is a lot of rumour and conjecture as to what’s immediately going to happen to it, also, just what sort of direction the new owners plan on taking it. To be honest I don’t think that they even dead set for sure know at this stage, but, my personal opinion about the sale is that I will simply turn up next year and see for myself what it’s become. |
