The 6th annual Tour de Newton, and the first ever Magical Mystery Tour de Newton took over the city this morning. Riders took off on six different routes that all converged on City Hall for one big bicycle themed party with 700 guests. Along each of those routes they saw some pretty entertaining, whimsical, alarming and surprising “mysteries”
- People blowing six foot bubbles
- A fiddler and drum wailing away on the aqueduct (“Buskin Boston”)
- Hopscotch with candy
- A blues/folk band playing in a playground
- Two big lumps in the woods that came to life and danced when the viola began to play
- Giant heads on trees
- Clarinets playing at the boardwalk at Dolan Pond
- A troll under a bridge
- Mysterious curtains in a field, behind them a chef cooking blueberry pancakes for you
- A zombie army roaming the streets
- Giant puppets
It all ended with one big party at City Hall with a giant birthday cake to celebrate Bike Newton’s 10th birthday and a roving robot courtesy of the LigerBots
A great new edition this year was #BikeHappyKids. While the big kids were riding the routes, the little kids were at City Hall for #BikeHappyKids. It was a whole circus of events for beginning bike riders and kids who aren’t quite on two wheels yet.
As always, this event is a testament to the huge number of volunteers – those folks who lead, sweep, play music, cook pancakes, blow bubbles, puppeteer, dance, and become zombies for a day, or encourage the youngest kids to get on a bike. Most of all, thanks to Alicia Bowman who is the life force and organizational genius behind this event,. and Graham Sinclair who put together #BikeHappyKids
The puppet people awaiting the riders
The off-duty troll with his family
The creatures in Cold Spring Park
And Jerry Reilly, Newton’s own Master of Fun and his merry elves!
I had another obligation this morning, but got back in time to hit City Hall for the show’s ending around 11 am. I oculdn’t believe the number of riders that were participating and the great time that everyone was having. Congratulations to Jerry and to everyone else that helped make this possible. I’ve been reluctant to get back onto a bicycle, but the format for this year’s event looked a bit less challenging and I might give next year’s fling a shot. Things like this make Newton still a great place to live.
Also special shutouts to our elected officials who volunteered in various capacities today – Andreae Downs mapped out the Waban route and led a group of riders this morning. Alison Leary and her kids helped out with pancakes and at City Hall. Brenda Noel and her entire family were enthusiastic members of the zombie army.
The mayor had originally planned to be there but the birth of her grand
daughterson intervened. The mayor’s office was suitably represented though by her assistant Noah Rivkin who was one of the very popular giant puppets at the finish.Also special shutout to the most wonderful and unique public service organization I’ve ever heard of – The Free Puppet Library. All the giant puppets at City Hall, the troll under the bridge, the heads on the trees at the Upper Falls Greenway and Washington Park, the mysterious heads on sticks by Cold Spring Park, and the globe that the dancing shapes in the woods revealed, were all on loan from the Free Puppet Library.
Lucky drivers on Parker Rd may have seen some of those same puppets as part of Saturday’s Stearn St block party parade. Once you get your hands on giant puppets you don’t want to let them sit idle. We’ve also discovered that there really is no activity that can’t be improved with a few giant puppets.
Video?
NewTV’s Ryan Keaveney was everywhere so I’d guess they will soon have some video. Also a Tab reporter/photographer was popping up everywhere so I’m guessing she’ll (sorry can’t remember her name) have good photos.
One of my favorite moments: I got to City Hall after 11 by the time all 700 riders had arrived there. I was wandering through the crowd with the troll’s costume when a friend stopped me and said “did that policeman find you?”. “What policeman?” “He asked if I knew Jerry Reilly. I told him yes, but I hadn’t seen you. He said ‘if I see him tell him I’m looking for him'”
My guilty conscience kicked into overdrive. Within minutes, in my own mind I had become a fugitive from justice with a price on my head.
About a half hour later I found out that one of the Auxiliary Police loved the new Tour de Newton T shirt and wanted to know how to get one.
It looks like all my crimes are safe from prosecution for a while longer. #OnTheRunInNewton
@Jerry: Or as we say of City Council #atLarge 😉
A big shout out to Alicia Bowman, head of BikeNewton. It was a great event and I can’t even imagine how challenging it must have been to organize.
The shorter distances this year (9 miles versus 20) was a welcomed change. Also, the big meet-up of all the groups at City Hall was an impressive conclusion to the ride.
Yesterday was so much fun! It is a lovely community event that gets better every year. Thank you to all the volunteers and the sponsors who make this possible. If you have photos, please send them to [email protected] or tweet/FB @bikenewton
I added a few photos above
I am sorry I missed this great event as I was in Detroit for a wedding. In our spare time, my husband and I hit several pocket parks, right in Downtown, admiring how they are set up to attract children and adults: giant Connect Four, Bean bag toss, Ping pong tables, sandboxes, chairs and tables to sit; artificial turf but real plantings to isolate the park from the car traffic. Each park also had two or three security guards!!
Many thanks to the amazing Jerry Reilly for all his hard work and creativity. We are fast becoming the whimsy capital of New England due to Jerry.
Go Puppets!
I like it. Whimsytown USAl 😉