Bike Nights in Winchester gets bigger and better each year. Courtesy Photo

WIINCHESTER – Get ready for another fun season of bike nights in Winchester.

The Winchester Downtown Revitalization Committee, (WDRC) is at it again.

The committee has planned four motorcycle bike nights at Winchester’s Sweet Corner Park and Winchester’s downtown core this summer.

The summer series events will run the second Thursday of the summer months starting June 9 and following up with July 14, Aug. 11 and Sept. 8 from 5 to 9 p.m.

Vince Zandbelt a committee member and Bike Night organizer said, “The event will feature a different music band for each night. Bike Night also has a rotation of five different craft breweries throughout its summer series with two different vendors per night. Wine will also be served each night.”

Organizers have six local food establishments taking part in serving up a combination of bike themed named-wings, pizza, pulled pork, munchies, baked desserts as well as the famous Scoop of Jo’s ice cream trailer!

The visiting bikes will be parking along the roadway on Main and St. Lawrence Streets. The two streets will be blocked off to regular vehicular traffic.

Bike Night will be partnering with four charitable groups that will benefit from the night’s festivities by holding a 50/50 draw with 100 per cent of the proceeds going directly to the charities.

The charities are Community Food Share, House of Lazarus, Black Walnut Prostate Cancer awareness group, and Nor-Dun Seniors Support Centre (Carefor).

In 2019, Bike Night increased from 350 bikes on opening night to 600 by its final event in September.

To keep this momentum going and growing, organizers are working to have the best musical entertainment they can.

“Kicking things off on our opening night June 9, we are bringing in an eight-piece band from Montreal, The Last of the Duke Street Kings” which is a Bruce Springsteen tribute band. As their events roll out, we’ll announce our future musical lineup,” said Zandbelt.

New this year, at the Main intersection a different brand of bike will be featured each month at the Manufacturers on Main event.

“On their first night we will see new Harley Davidson models on display.”

Also new this year is the event’s Bike of the Month with a different bike featured each month.

Kicking off the first month will be the social media famous DKW that was brought over for a reunification with Mr. Bill Zandbelt on his 90th birthday.

“Our events have drawn rave reviews and have had huge turnouts of both bikes and bikers from not only Ottawa, Brockville, Kingston, Cornwall and surrounding areas but areas in Quebec including Hull, Aylmer, Gatineau and a group that travels monthly from Valleyfield QC,” said organizer Vince Zandbelt.

“The purpose of our event is to raise funds for our local charities, draw people to our downtown business core, raise awareness for bike safety and help our local food establishments while also raising funds for our revitalization group.”