page_title: Black Bike Week
section_title: Myrtle Beach ban
hierarchical_section_title: Black Bike Week / Myrtle Beach ban
caption_attribution_description: Black Bike Week Festival 2008
context_page_description: Black Bike Week, also called Atlantic Beach Bikefest and Black Bikers Week, is an annual motorcycle rally in the Myrtle Beach, South Carolina area, held on Memorial Day weekend. It is also sometimes called Black Fill-in-the-Blank Week, because it has evolved to attract many non-motorcycling visitors who come for music, socializing and enjoying the beach. Events include motorcycle racing, concerts, parties, and street festivals. Called a "one-of-a-kind event" and "an exhibitionist's paradise" by Jeffrey Gettleman, Black Bike Week is "all about riding, styling and profiling," in the words of Mayor Irene Armstrong of Atlantic Beach, South Carolina.
  It is the largest African American motorcycle rally in the US. Attendance has been variously reported as 350,000, 375,000, and as high as 400,000. It is considered the third or fourth largest motorcycle rally in the United States. Around 10–15 percent of motorcyclists in the US are women, while at major African American motorcycle rallies, such as Black Bike Week or the National Bikers Roundup, women make up close to half of participants.
context_section_description: In 2008, the Myrtle Beach City Council announced it would no longer host motorcycle rallies, and approved a set of ordinances on September 23, 2008 that placed restrictions on motorcycle rallies. Fifteen laws were passed, restricting muffler noise, requiring helmets within city limits, limiting parking to two bikes per space, restricting loitering in parking lots, and more. In spite of this, Black Bike Week 2009's attendance was only reduced slightly. Vendors, hotels, biker groups and promoters attempted to schedule events for Black Bike Week 2010 despite the Myrtle Beach government's ban.
  In anticipation of the 2010 Harley Bike Week rally, a local Harley-Davidson dealership said events would still take place for their bike week event, but on a reduced schedule of only 5 days, May 11 to 16, while the website Myrtle Beach Bike Week, LLC says a full-length rally of May 7–16 would take place. Both sources say there would be no vendors inside the city limits of Myrtle Beach during the Harley Bike Week, and they both encouraged attendees to boycott the city and patronize those communities and businesses outside the city which did support Harley Bike Week.
  The Myrtle Beach Convention Center had ceased attempting to find a replacement for the Carolina Harley-Davidson Dealers Association, which had moved to Hard Rock Park. The reason for moving The Carolina Harley-Davidson Dealers Association event to New Bern in 2009 was that Myrtle Beach, "passed all these silly laws, they said we ruined their May, so we talked about it and decided to oblige them," said Gene Lummus, former president of the association.
  Another proposed rally, a Harley Owners Group convention, would take place May 18–22, 2010, at North Myrtle Beach, about 15 miles (24 km) up the coast from Myrtle Beach.
caption: Bike Week 2008
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