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Events
CARcass celebrates all things bike
Get out and have a bunch of bike fun
By Dan Adleman
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Mark Friday September 21 to Sunday 23 on your calendars because it's going to be a weekend-long bike-stravaganza that you won't soon forget.
On Friday night the weekend will be kicked off in style with a lascivious bike-porn-themed party at the WISE Hall, to be followed by a naughty negligee bike ride at 11 pm.
You may be asking yourself what exactly bike porn is. Well, your guess is as good as mine, but I’m told the Creaking Planks are going to be playing and there’s going to be some kind of bike striptease action going on.
But things are really going to get rolling in Strathcona Park on Sunday afternoon at 1:00 pm when Ifny Lachance, local bike luminary, environmental activist and self-authorized social supernova, puts on CARcass, "a day of bicycle battle-games and buffoonery including jousting, derbies, blindfold races and a game of Afghan buzkashi." Buzkashi, if you didn't already know, is an ultra-intense Afghani game in which men on horseback jostle for the opportunity to throw a dead goat into a delineated circle. But in Lachance 's kinder, gentler—but still hella fun—version of the game, competitors are on bikes rather than horses and are competing over the effigy of an SUV instead of a dead goat. (You can view it all on YouTube).
A big part of what makes CARcass, and in fact the whole weekend, unique is the rare emphasis on positivity and inclusivity over didacticism and cliquishness. "Negativity is unnecessarily draining," says Lachance. "It's important to be positive to re-energize and embrace the community we've fought hard to create. Being cool doesn't really interest me. I'm much more interested in encouraging a sense of community and solidarity. That's why anyone, including kids, can play and we're making sure to provide vegan food so that no one feels excluded."
But the event is also a means to forge tighter and more dynamic bonds with fun-loving progressive types elsewhere in Canada and south of the border. In this spirit, the winner of the competition receives a mock key to the city of Vancouver made out of spare bike parts. "It's a good-will thing," says Lachance. "The idea is to promote stewardship rather than ownership."
Most amazing of all, and totally in keeping with Lachance 's self-propelled ethos, CARcass is being put on with pretty much no budget. "It's a totally grassroots event,” says Lachance. “There's literally no funding. I just make this event because nobody else will. Somebody told me that this is the most fun they've ever had on a bicycle, and that to me is the biggest compliment. And if people aren't comfy, they can just watch or cheer. And sometimes people come with that idea, but they usually get sucked into playing."
To end the weekend off, there's going to be bike polo at noon at the tennis courts in Grandview Park. Then, at a TBA time and place, the brave of heart will take their bikes to the top of a local mountain and hop on for Alpine Bombtastic kamikaze downhill biking!
Check out velovan.blogspot.com for a complete list of events. Hope to see you there!
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