‘Ride all day’: Friends bring their bikes back to SC for Atlantic Beach Bikefest
Davonatte McDowell and Frank Tillery have been like family since joining the same bike club, Glyde RYDAZ, two years ago. The friends spend a lot of their time together riding their motorcycles in their hometown of Tarboro, N.C.
This weekend, they were riding the streets of the Grand Strand for the 42nd Black Pearl Cultural Heritage and Bike Festival, an annual event that brings tens of thousands of bikers to the area.
The festival, also known as Atlantic Beach Bikefest or Black Bike Week, returned Memorial Day weekend after it was canceled two years in a row due to COVID-19 concerns.
Even though there was no official event last year, bikers came to the Myrtle Beach area to ride and hang out with their friends. One of them was McDowell, 20, who has been coming to the festival for four years. But for 27-year-old Tillery, it’s his first time at Bikefest.
“I came to have a good time and spend time with the family since we don’t always get to spend time together,” Tillery said. “But I also like to ride. I’ll ride all day.”
McDowell, who has been riding since he was 9, owns a trucking business back home and said he doesn’t get much time to travel.
“You come to the beach to chill, go to the water to have fun, but then it’s Bike Week, too,” he said. “Everybody got bikes, and you can meet different people, and since y’all like the same stuff, it’s more fun.”
While here, McDowell said they plan to attend some of the events and go to the beach, but he mostly just wants to ride his bike. It brings him peace and a chance to think, he added, especially after working all the time.
“It just basically gives you a break from everything. It’s just you and your bike. What could possibly happen?” he asked.
Tillery, who owns a kennel, agreed with his friend.
“If I got something on my mind, I just get on the bike and ride,” he added.
History of the event
The festival has been a providing a space for Black bikers to congregate and hang out since the 1980s.
Bikefest follows the 83rd annual Myrtle Beach Bike Week, another popular event that draws large crowds of bikers during the spring. That event ran from May 13 through May 22.
In 2018, the NAACP filed a lawsuit against the City of Myrtle Beach and their police department, saying Black tourists face discrimination during Bikefest.
The lawsuit focused on a 23-mile traffic loop implemented in 2015 during Memorial Day weekend. It came after 2014 violence which left three dead and seven injured, after eight shootings were reported along Ocean Boulevard. The loop turns Ocean Boulevard into a one-way road and funnels traffic out to George Bishop Parkway and back to the boulevard. A jury in 2020 found that the city’s decision was discriminatory but legal.
This year, Myrtle Beach has not implemented the traffic loop. But some roads leading to Ocean Boulevard have been blocked off during the holiday weekend.
McDowell and Tillery have been in Myrtle Beach since Thursday and plan to leave on Sunday with their friends. But they said they look forward to coming back next year.
“It’s as fun as you make it,” Tillery said. “It’s just fun to ride.”
This story was originally published May 29, 2022 at 12:28 PM with the headline "‘Ride all day’: Friends bring their bikes back to SC for Atlantic Beach Bikefest."