Tour de Fat!

This weekend to celebrate a pal's birthday, we headed out to the New Belgium Brewery-sponsored Tour de Fat festival in Chicago. Basically you get up very early in the morning to dress up as silly as possible and be a part of a very large bike parade at around 930am. After that, you come back to a park and drink lots of New Belgium beers and are entertained by games and performances of all kinds. It was really quite a blast. The beers were $5 a pop and they had many delicious varieties on tap, including their staple, Fat Tire, and a summer ale called Skinny Dip. All the beers were ice cold and really hit the spot on a hot day like yesterday.

I was dressed like a pirate:

I fit in just fine with all the other zany costumes. We ended up getting there very late and just had enough time to register and throw on a sticker, then suddenly the whole mob of bikes started toward us. Turns out, we were in the FRONT of the parade! So we quickly turned around and led the pack of bikers around the town, and it was quite exhilarating to be in the front of such a fun parade! We were well taken care of by police escorts who blocked traffic for us everywhere we went. It was safe and fun and family friendly. People on the streets seemed happy to see us and stopped to wave and cheer us on!

After the parade, we settled in to relax in the sun and drink the tasty New Belgium selections. There were lots of tents with people selling T-shirts and other fun things. The always enjoyable band Mucca Pazza was on hand to play some summer tunes for a rowdy and happy audience.

We ventured over to the Pit, which was a circular area gated off with all sorts of bicycles made of unlikely materials inside. You could don a helmet and take a spin on any of the artistic creations (if you could manage to figure out how to ride through the muddy grass!). There were tiny bikes and big bikes and bikes built for two or three. There were tires made of tennis shoes and tires that were huge and thick and almost impossible to ride. One of the creations was a three person bike that just curved and connected and went around and around in circles. Riding that one after a few beers proved to be quite the adventure in dizziness!

This bike was my favorite:

All in all, a fantastic way to spend a Saturday morning. We came, we biked, we conquered. I would highly recommend the Tour de Fat to anyone who likes bikes and beer. Well worth the suggested $5 donation and full of the kind of summer fun Chicago is famous for. This day will be marked in my book as one of the most fun summer days I have had in a while. Hooray for New Belgium for putting on a wonderful summer celebration!