A roaring success is the overall feeling about the first Bike Night à Hawkesbury event.
“I’m still on a high,” said event founder and lead organizer Nathalie Lessard. “I can’t believe how many people came.”
Estimates of the turnout for the June 23 event are 300 motorcycles and their riders occupied the Main Street area of downtown Hawkesbury during the evening. Along with the motorcycles’ owners there was a good turnout of residents and visitors to the town who dropped by that evening to admire the machines, listen to the live music, and take advantage of shopping or dining at the downtown businesses and restaurants that elected to have extended opening hours for the day.
“For a first-time event, that’s pretty outstanding,” said Lessard, regarding the event attendance.
,Feedback gathered through an informal survey and also anecdotes from both motorcycle owners and others during the evening have encouraged Lessard and others involved in organizing the event to start planning for another Bike Night à Hawkesbury in August.
The comments and suggestions for future such events included having more live music available during the evening and encouraging more downtown restaurants and mobile food vendors to take part.
Lessard expressed optimism about the likelihood of Bike Night à Hawkesbury becoming a regular part of the town’s tourism market scene and helping to support the downtown sector.
“That was the reason we were doing this,” she said, “for the merchants on Main Street.”
