A couple of Sundays ago (23rd August), the town of Brackley in Northamptonshire, held its first Festival Of Motorcycling.

The organisers said sunny weather was booked and so it turned out. We enjoyed a very pleasant bimble along the twisty roads to Banbury and beyond, and arrived at Brackley early afternoon – the event being scheduled to run from 12-6pm.

I have to say it was an extremely well run event. Right from the off there were marshalls pointing us to the playing field, allocated for motorcycle parking, behind the Brackley High Street featuring the main attractions.

For our £3 we were given a programme of events and also a ‘proper job’ plastic side stand thingy, nice touch that.

Whilst I’m talking about the programme, it was well put together in an easy to read format, including a timetable of events and a map showing the layout. In addition, the organisers had arranged for appearances by racing stars Cal Crutchlow (World Supersport title leader) , Leon Camier (British Superbike title leader), Craig Jones stuntrider, plus Tristan Palmer, Dave Wood and John Laverty (British championship contenders). Incorporated in the program were photographs of each of them plus a place for their autograph, which I thought was another nice touch and shows how well the whole event had been thought out.

Brackley Festival of Motorcycling was sponsoring both the Warwickshire & Northamptonshire Air Ambulance plus National Assocation for Bikers with a Disability (NABD).

The whole event had a fun-fair type feel with the main street cordoned off to allow for the parade of motorcycles and the stunt show. There were motorcycle accessories and trade stands as well as Banbury Sound providing commentary.

Various motorcycle clubs had stands including the Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club and a display of vintage and classic motorcycles.

In the field where the main motorcycle parking was there as a “family attractions” area which included a fun-fair, bouncy castle, face painting, ice cream vans etc.

There were plenty of interesting motorcycles to have a look at, which you can see in the pictures hereabouts, I particularly liked the breast cancer liveried Harley and on the vintage motorcycle stand there was a Raleigh that had been totally restored from a complete wreck that had been found buried in a garden, it was very impressive and shows the passion that we all have for motorcycles.

You can see both of these motorcycles in the photographs below.

Brackley Festival of Motorcycles organisers did a great job in bringing motorcycling into the public arena in this way and not only did they attract plenty of motorcyclists to a brilliant event they also successfully meshed it with a fun day out for the residents of Brackley – good job!

What we always like at these events are when the local WI get involved, as well as great tea and home-made cakes, always a bonus, it is great to see the whole community getting involved. Of course, the motorcyclists treat them with the utmost courtesy and respect and everyone is happy and the event is run successfully for many a year and yet another group of people are shown that motorcyclists are nice people to be around