Last year the NYPD tried to shut down Bike Kill, and it could not be done. This year a goddam Nor’easter rolled into town, and even it couldn’t contain the glorious mayhem. Nothing can stop Bike Kill!
The 16th annual celebration of bike culture and getting drunk and throwing stuff and crashing into things and laughing with your friends and having a fucking blast went down this weekend as it always does, on the last Saturday in October. As is also increasingly customary, the venue was new yet again, this time taking place in an empty lot near the 11th Street Basin in Long Island City. The swells in the luxury towers looming over the chaos didn’t seem to notice or care, and the party was uninterrupted by any sort of authority figure.
The Black Label Bike Club puts an enormous of love and energy into the event each year–for one thing, they’re the ones who build and haul in all the mutant bikes that everyone gets to tear around on all day–and there’s always good food, great music, ridiculous contests, crazy costumes, and excellent people. At the end of the festivities the “leave no trace” rule is put into effect, and it’s all hands until it’s all clean.
Little wonder that in certain circles Bike Kill is known, simply, as “the best day of the year.” If you know you know.
