LEESBURG BIKEFEST HAS IT ALL
Up to 250,000 people will rev into Leesburg Bikefest this weekend for hot-body contests, concerts, stunt shows — and plenty of beer. But a small group of revelers will skip the Coors in favor of coffee or Coke to talk about the bonds of recovery as members of Alcoholics Anonymous.
LEESBURG — Outside the Beacon College administration building on Main Street, the constant din of roaring motorcycles could be heard Friday as the city’s 21st annual biker bash picked up in tempo.
Up to 250,000 people will rev into the city of 22,000 through the weekend for hotbody contests, concerts, stunt shows — and plenty of beer. But a small group of revelers will skip the Coors in favor of coffee or Coke to talk about the bonds of alcoholic recovery.
More than 20 people — many sporting mustaches and ponytails, black leather boots and sleeveless Harley-Davidson T-shirts — attended the first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting during the three-day event at the college geared to students with learning disabilities.
“There’s no graduates here,” said a motorcyclist named Gene, upholding one of the organization’s main tenets: alcoholics are always in recovery. He has logged 20-plus years sober. The organization, which has chapters all over the world, has a custom of protecting its members’ identities.
“Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities,” said R.J., reading a tenet of the organization at the meeting’s start.
More than 600 people attended the AA gatherings — now in their 11th year — at last
year’s Bikefest.
On Friday, motorcyclists from all over the country happily talked about their gratitude for sobriety. Outside, beer trailers pumped away brews for other revelers.
AA participants enjoy the company of like-minded bikers and can be counted on to say “thank you for sharing” after every story about the impact of alcoholism. A prayer to God — or any higher power — caps every meeting.
Brian, who has been sober for more than a decade, said he hated everyone when he first started going to Alcoholics Anonymous.
“If I told members that I said that, they’d say, ‘Yeah, that’s about right,’ ” he said. “But when I go to a church and tell them that they’d all be horrified.”
Some said their gratitude for being sober — leaving a life where they were considered a loser or liar — is so great that they’re not tempted to knock back a cold one for old time’s sake even though they’re surrounded by fellow bikers drinking freely.
Mark, who said he first got sober in Brenham, Texas, in 1995, met a woman who hadn’t had a drink for 40 years at his first AA meeting. He was skeptical about AA and the idea of giving up booze for good.
“I didn’t believe her — didn’t know why anyone would want to be sober,” he said. “But I knew there was a secret there, and I didn’t know what was there, but I knew it was something.”
Despite being sober, some AA bikers go out of their way to avoid projecting a holier-thanthou attitude.
A pack of Marlboro Red cigarettes tucked in his shirt-sleeve, Jack said he traded alcohol for motorcycles.
“You know,” he said. “I think I swapped vices.”