WITH a certain amount of mystery surrounding whether or not this year’s Annual Celebration of Motorcycles Bombala would be a big success, it is pleasing to report that over 1000 people attended the colourful event on Saturday.
The dissolution of the Bombala Motorcycle Association left the future of our bike show in doubt earlier this year, and even the new organising committee which came on board was concerned about the numbers the event would attract.
That was up until the bikes started arriving in town on Friday afternoon and evening, with Saturday morning revealing a good number of motorcycles lined up on display at the Exhibition Ground.
While some still commented that the bike numbers were lower, there were just as many who felt the quality of the display was better than the previous year, and there were certainly plenty of happy faces to be seen at the trophy presentations.
No local riders appeared in the results list, but the Best Overall Bike Award went to Mike Stairs, while the Best Paint was awarded to Mark Vassik, and the People’s Choice Award was presented to Brett McKie.
Along with checking out the impressive machines on display, the crowd was also able to enjoy a big number of market stalls, with the traditional leather, jewellery, clothing and bike gear attracting great interest.
This was certainly one area where numbers were solid, with there being as many - if not more - stalls set up for the event this time around, including a number of local sellers in the hall.
Other favourites on the day were the top live music, the tyre tossing competition, and of course the burn-out contest, which never fails to draw everyone to the centre of the ground to cheer on the riders as the smoke flies.
Of course there were a number of new attractions added to the bike show format this year, with the Super Slide and jumping castle proving popular with the kids in particular.
The street procession was only small, but included some keen local businesses, as well as the Woodstock Bourbon promotional team, and a few classic cars and bikes, which were all led by the Cooma Police a little ahead of schedule.
The organisers apologise for this unavoidable early start to the first ever street procession of the Annual Celebration of Motorcycles, and there are hopes that more businesses will jump on board next year.
In fact, there are very high hopes for our local bike show in 2009.
After facing such as an unknown task this year, the new organising committee is satisfied with its first event, and is promising an ever better Annual Celebration next year, with a view to providing more activities to keep the crowd entertained right throughout the day.