Atlantic Beach cancels Black Bike Week for second year in a row, citing pandemic
A bike festival that brings hundreds of Black bikers to the Grand Strand has been canceled for the second year in a row.
Atlantic Beach’s Bikefest, also known as Black Bike week, was nixed by Atlantic Beach’s town council Monday night. This is the second year that the pandemic has forced a cancellation.
The Bikefest is usually held Memorial Day weekend. In 2020, coronavirus concerns forced town leaders to move the event to Labor Day weekend before it was eventually canceled outright.
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 crux of the lawsuit pertains to a 23-mile traffic loop implemented in 2015 during Memorial Day week. It came after the 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 Ocean Boulevard.
Last year a judge ruled that the city’s decision was racially motivated, but that they would have implemented the traffic loop regardless of the race of bikers.
On Monday, Atlantic Beach town council also extended the declaration of emergency and mask mandate until June 1.
