Bring a Bike Fest to Palo Alto

This past weekend, the stars aligned and brought us the year's Big Three bicycle festivals all at once: the Bicycle Film Festival, Tour de Fat, and Biketoberfest.

Bicycle Film Festival was founded in 2001 by Brendt Barbur in New York City "as a platform to celebrate the bicycle through music, art, and of course, film." The film festival now tours 28 cities around the world, including San Francisco on Sep 23 and 24 this year, and screens films celebrating all aspects of bicycle culture. This year's feature film was Bill Cunningham New York, a documentary on the life of the Schwinn-riding octogenarian who has been documenting New York's on-the-street fashion trends for over 50 years.

Tour de Fat, the New Belgium Brewing Company's annual "ballyhoo of bikes and beer", tours 13 USA cities and rolled into San Francisco's Golden Gate Park on Sep 24. Participants enjoyed a morning Bike Parade along Great Highway, free freak bike riding, a slow bike race (the slowest rider wins), live bands, vaudeville acts, and of course, tasty New Belgium beers. Just as in years past, all proceeds from beer sales were donated to the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and the Bay Area Ridge Trail Council.

Biketoberfest is another annual bikes and beer festival, but this one is held in the small town of Fairfax in Marin County, on Sep 25 this year. Fairfax has just 1/9 the population of Palo Alto, but Biketoberfest featured 25 west coast bicycle frame and component manufacturers and 40 beers from 24 west coast brewers. Live polka music too.

Don't Palo Alto and it's neighbors have enough bike-crazy folks to support a bicycle festival like one of these here?